Suspected human remains found in basement of commercial Allegheny County building

TARENTUM, Pa. — Suspected human remains were discovered Tuesday morning in the basement of a Tarentum building undergoing renovations, according to our news partners at Trib Live.

Remains including what appeared to be part of hip or shoulder bones and a leg bone were found by a contractor who had been digging in the basement of 305 E. Fifth Ave., a former ceramics store that is being redeveloped.

Dave Rankin, who owns the building, alerted Tarentum police to the discovery and turned over the remains to the department. The bones were in possession of the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office by mid-afternoon, county spokeswoman Amie Downs said.

Rankin said the remains were found near a wall against a neighboring building that Rankin said once housed a funeral home. The W. Edward Flick Funeral Home had once been in the building adjacent to Rankin’s, according to Cindy Homburg, an unofficial borough historian. It closed in the 1960s.

The bones were found under the basement’s concrete floor, on top of and beneath flat stones that were on top of a circular, brick-lined pit about 4 feet across, said Dave Barnes, superintendent of Mosites Construction.

You can read more about the remains on the Trib’s website.

RAW: Man, dog inside home when fire broke out in Pittsburgh's Brookline neighborhood