Children fishing in Pennsylvania park find human remains

A group of kids playing and fishing in a Highspire, Pennsylvania park stumbled upon human remains on Thursday, authorities said.

Investigators revealed that the human bones were in a marshy and muddy area of the park and that the remains seemed to have been there for years.

“Many of the bones were found in the root structure and all that sort of stuff,” Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick said. “So we had to clear a lot out.”

The coroner added that based on the condition of the remains, they may have been there for at least two years. Hetrick also stated that he doesn’t suspect foul play.

“We can do calculations on height of the person. At this point, it seems to be a person of smaller stature,” he said.

No wallet or identification was with the bones but investigators found fragments of clothing and a piece of jewelry.

Hetrick said that his office will look into missing persons’ data but stressed that DNA testing is often necessary to confirm the decedent’s identity.

“We’re pretty confident in who we have, but we always like…it’s a tool that says scientifically it can’t be anybody else,” he said.