After years of combing beaches for fossils and other interesting finds, you’re bound to discover some pretty amazing stuff. That has certainly been the case for George Oliver. But he’s never made a find that has garnered this much attention before. The discovery was made near his home. He was walking along the shore of Chesapeake Bay when, suddenly, he spotted what would turn out to be a coffin.
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Normally, the tide is too high for the coffin to be visible. But as luck would have it, the sea perfectly revealed the still-intact coffin at the right time. This alone would have been an incredible find. But the part that makes this story so unique is the fact that a human skeleton was still inside — and quite a lot of it, too.
“This is probably the most we’ve had of one body,” Kelsey Ward, crime scene technician, says. “Typically, we might find a leg bone or an arm bone or just not this much of one skeleton, and that’s just because they found it in the coffin.”
From what Kelsey can tell, the skeleton is at least 100 years old. Beyond that, much about this person remains a mystery. This includes their age, race, and gender. That said, she does have a theory as to what may have happened to them. Find out what she has to say in the video below.
Man Stumbles Upon a Century-Old Coffin in the Chesapeake Bay
@nbcwashington A Calvert County man often searches for fossils along the Chesapeake Bay shore in Maryland. But the discovery of a coffin and a nearly-complete human skeleton was a complete surprise. News4’s Mark Segraves took us to the beach where the coffin was found — and the sheriff’s office where the bones were analyzed. #fossils #calvertcounty #calvertcountymd #mystery #bones #coffin #skeleton #maryland #md #dmv #dc #washingtondc #virginia #va ♬ original sound – NBC Washington
Although much is unknown about these remains, now that they’ve been found, this person will finally be laid back to rest. More specifically, they’ll be reinterred at a local church cemetery.
“It’s a shame that it had to happen the way it happened,” George shares. “But I think it’s awesome that we found him or her, and now they’ll be able to rest.”
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here!
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