Human Remains Found During Excavation At Suncor Energy

March 6, 2012 6:27 PM

The excavation site in Commerce City (credit: CBS)

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COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (CBS4) – Human remains have been found during an excavation at the Suncor Energy plant in Commerce City.

The refinery is located off Interstate-270 and Brighton Boulevard.

Construction crews found the bones last week and now investigators are trying to figure out where they came from.

Investigators are trying to figure how the long the bones had been at the site, the sex of the person, and the cause of death. It appears the bones had been buried for a long time. Depending on the condition of the bones, they may not be able to find out some of their questions.

An expert told CBS4 clues to finding out more information will come from the bones themselves and the surrounding area where they were found.

“There’s also the setting; how deeply they are buried, what type of soil they’re in, the soil not being disturbed for a long time,” Thomas Carr with the Colorado Anthropologists Office said. “Are there artifacts? Are there physical traits that can tell us something about the ancestry of this person?”

bones found map Human Remains Found During Excavation At Suncor Energy

(credit: CBS)

Investigators said it could take months just to get some clues.

If the bones are really old they could have some historical significance. The Archeological Society would have to get involved.

Human Remains Found During Excavation At Suncor Energy

Robert Mulvihill

Rocky Mountain News article 1934 April 22 recollections of Fred Reithmann, who’s family owned a dairy farm where Suncor refinery now stands. Reuthmann tells of Sioux, Arapahoe and Cheyenne encamped there after a battle with the Utes. [No date given].
“When the war party came back, there were scores of wounded warriors. More than 40 of them died during the next week or two. We children often watched the funerals for the braves from a distance….Until about 30 years ago [1904] I could point out a number of their graves, on the bench just across Sand Creek from Riverside Cemetery.”