EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. -- Human remains that appear to be female and were discovered in a home may be linked to a missing-person case from the 1930s, police said Wednesday.
Neighbors said construction was being done at the Michael Road house, including a new garage in the back. Bones were found by a contractor working in a crawl space.
Police said they had a report from 1938 that a woman who lived there had disappeared, but they do not know if the bones are hers.
The information came from a ninth-grader's school report from the 1930s, they said.
Police said the report also said a man named William or Wilhelm who lived in the home returned to his native Germany in 1938. The FBI may have been investigating at that time.
"We don't even know if she went missing in 1938 and was found a month later, a week later. We don't know," a State Police investigator said.
The incident predated the town having its own police department.
The case was never solved.
Police said they have found "just a few bones" so far and they are unsure if they will ever be able to identify the remains.
The bones will be taken to the medical examiner.
The property changed hands over the years, at one time becoming an orphanage and a monastery, police said. According to neighbors, Richard and Helen Hall lived at the residence for more than half a century when the road was named Monastery Road. A search of public records determined that both have died.
Neighbors said a couple with two children currently live in the home.
Police said that after the contractor found the bones, the homeowners put them into a plastic bag and brought them to East Greenbush police.
Asked how the family, which has been in the home for seven years, reacted the find, a police officer said: "Well, they're not very pleased, obviously."
State and town police, including East Greenbush evidence technicians and State Police forensic investigators, were at the site on Wednesday.
Bryan Fitzgerald, Brendan J. Lyons and Bob Gardinier contributed.
Copyright 2013 - Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
