Tourists find skeletal remains that may be linked to 1800s burial site

Tourists successful South Carolina made a gruesome find portion exploring an land disconnected the state's seashore past week, officials said. 

The tourists were successful Jeremy Cay, a beachfront portion of Edisto Island, erstwhile they recovered what they astatine archetypal believed to beryllium fossils — lone to recognize they had discovered quality remains, officials said successful a quality release. The tourists, who person not been identified, past called the Colleton County Sheriff's Office and the Edisto Beach Police Department. 

Officials secured the scene, past launched an investigation. Early indications from the probe "suggest the remains whitethorn originate from a agelong forgotten burial site," the Colleton County Sheriff's Office said. 

The remains were recovered successful an country that had erstwhile been known arsenic Edingsville Beach, the sheriff's bureau said. 

During the 19th century, Edingsville Beach was a colony of astir 60 homes, according to the Edisto Island website. The country was a fashionable abrogation destination for affluent Southern families, with homes overlooking the oversea and a adjacent marsh. There were besides respective churches, a schoolhouse and different communal buildings. 

But implicit the decades, upwind and erosion took their toll, and by the clip the Civil War began successful 1861, the colony and the remainder of the land were mostly uninhabited. In 1885, a monolithic tempest destroyed astir of the homes there. The remaining structures were demolished erstwhile different hurricane deed the country successful 1893. 

An undated photograph of a formation connected Edisto Island successful South Carolina. Wolfgang Kaehler/Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The newly-found remains were recovered by the Colleton County Coroner's Office. They person been transported to the Medical University of South Carolina for forensic investigation and identification. The sheriff's bureau said it is moving with the coroner's bureau and different agencies to "determine much astir the remains and their origin." 

Colleton County coroner Rich Harvey told Newsweek that the remains included a skull and respective separated bones. They mightiness day backmost to the Revolutionary oregon Civil War, helium said. 

Bones person antecedently been recovered connected the island, officials said. In 2015, a Pennsylvania tourer recovered respective bones adjacent the bluish portion of the island. Shortly afterwards, a erstwhile ranger visiting the land recovered a skull with immoderate teeth inactive attached. That skull was dated to betwixt 1865 and 1870, officials said. 

Broken tools, china and gathering materials from the settlement's heyday person besides been known to lavation up successful Jeremy Cay, according to an essay shared by the Jeremy Cay Homeowner's Association. 

Last week, skeletal remains recovered connected New Jersey beaches were identified as those of a 19th-century schooner captain. 

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• South Carolina