Neighbours have said a pensioner got the “shock of his life” after finding a bone while digging in his back garden in Dumfries which has led to police investigation
A pensioner is said to have got the “shock of his life” after digging up a bone in his garden sparking a major police investigation.
The elderly man was digging up his garden in the Locharbriggs area of Dumfries when he made the discovery last Tuesday and officers have remained at the scene since.
There was still a large number of police vehicles at the address, while a tent was erected in the back garden during the investigation. It has not been confirmed where the bones originated from and tests carried out to identify the age and source of the bone are likely to take a few weeks.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Around 10.10am on Tuesday, officers were called to a property in Auchencrieff Road following a report of a bone found within the garden. Enquiries are ongoing to examine the recovery.” It is believed the house was built around 35 years ago and the man who found the bone had lived there for the past two years.
Neighbours have told how the pensioner was a “lovely man” who got a real shock, reported the Daily Record. Olive Anderson, 72, said: “It’s not something you’d expect to find when you’re tidying up your back door. The police have been here constantly since Tuesday and they’ve put a tent up out the back. There’s loads of them here. My neighbour is a lovely man and really quiet. He told me he got the shock of his life.”
Wilma Webster, 75, added: “There’s all sorts of rumours going around about what it could be but nobody will really know until the police have finished. The house where the bone was found was built in 1989; the prefabs were there before that. We’ve no idea whether the bone’s been there for years or relatively lately.
“We were born and bred in Locharbriggs and have never heard anything like this happening here before. Out the back of the houses is a field and a loch. I wouldn’t have liked to find anything like that myself.” Another resident in the street said the discovery has “shaken” people up.
She added: “It’s creepy to think that it could be a human bone that’s been found. Some folk are saying they’ve heard it’s a leg; others say they’ve heard it’s an arm. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if it was me. It’s good that there’s so many police at the scene because and that they’ve been there through the night. We all just really want to know what it is and how it got there.” Police, meanwhile, have described the find as “archaeological”.
