Found bones in an old church porch, should I report it?

[IsitaHatOrACat]

On a walk at the weekend I explored an old (unused) church and graveyard. These bones were sitting in the church porch. Any advice? It seems a bit off to just ignore them. Has this ever happened to anyone else and did you do anything about it?

I manage a couple of churchyards and this happens quite frequently, particularly in very hot weather. My guess wouldn be that someone else found them and didn’t know what to do, so has left them there hoping someone else will deal with it.

they need to be reinterred to wherever they came from. If the church is closed, it is likely that the churchyard is managed by the parish council. The police also need to be advised.

If unused but not deconsecrated, you still can contact the local diocese.

Poor boy. He deserved a peaceful burial.

Update for anyone who is interested:
I had a call from the police (CID no less!). They are looking into this

Thanks for that - please keep us posted !

Thanks OP, hopefully they can conclude they're jolly old and no further action is required, but definitely better safe than sorry I reckon.

The murderer might have boiled the victim’s body, or got his pet vultures to pick the bones clean.

The path lab will clear it up.

Take him downtown and book him, Danno.

I work in construction. If we find bones in an excavation we have to tell the police. None of the bones I’ve ever found have come to much. Used to happen a bit in the early 2000s/late ‘90s when the NHS sold off a lot of old hospitals.

So, you're in a former graveyard, surrounded by buried bones. Animals are known to dig up bones in graveyards. You find some dry old bones.

Are they a) some dry old bones that have been dug up by an animal?
Or b) actually a small portion of a body that has been killed by an evil scientist genius who has covered all traces of his crime including boiling down bones in complex chemicals to resemble dry old bones and then disposed of all but two of those bones?

I have a bridge you might like to buy

If they’re old bones then this is totally normal. Though often they’re stored underneath the altar and not in the porch.

If old bones come to the surface in a CofE churchyard, then correct protocol is to store them until there is a suitable opportunity to bury them again (normally another funeral!). I don’t know whether it is standard practice to seek the permission of the family of the next grave before adding the “found” bones to that plot - Google might know!

Old bones in churchyards is completely normal and not freaky or scary. Those people were our neighbours, just in a different time.

Interesting! Thank you

You need to inform someone. Police or local historian or vicar. Police first if you live anywhere near serial killers' known stomping grounds.

No skeletons in my garden (yet), but lots in the neighbourhood (old).

If CID investigate bones found in churchyards, the police aren’t as busy as they claim.

If I had a body to dispose of, a graveyard seems a sensible place - not a completely fresh one, but otherwise, people expect to find bones there, so they're not going to be so suspicious.

Although I also reckon you should always get someone else to do the dirty work.

And if anyone wanted to bury a body they had just murdered, why not a graveyard. After all as you say, getting the police involved is just a waste of time and money.

You report it to the police. I used to work in a church converted into a museum and bones were always popping up, just call your local non emergency number and they’ll come and take a look.

DH said that someone might have found bones on their own land and being respectful taken them to the church. It would avoid people digging up their garden he said

I've actually had experience of this:

Years ago the house or possibly two behind my old church (city centre) came up for sale and the church bought it to convert into new parish offices. When they were surveying the buildings, it was found that one of them didn't have good foundations so they had to dig it out underneath, and put in extra supports. You can all see where this is going right....?!

...it turned out that the around 500 year old church had been built with a graveyard out the back and the probably 200 year old other buildings had been added on this site. So there were still graves with bones in under the buildings at the back. The police were involved and the bones examined by a forensics team who eventually decided they weren't too concerned and the church could just relocate the bones to another grave yard... which led to the then church warden doing a 20 minute walk across the city with the bones in a bag in a wheelbarrow...! (They were respectfully re-buried in another church graveyard!)

No need to panic unless the previous owner was a Mr West.......maybe check your Deeds ?

Do please come back and tell us what happened with the police, OP.

Sounds like the intro to a horror movie 😆

I was thinking this. So many of their unidentified 'friends' walked free.

Could just be old bones that eventually can get disturbed but it is best to let the police know and take any necessary action.

They seem to neatly presented to be an animal leaving them in the porch

The rude and visceral reaction to a perfectly reasonable question is astonishing