7 Coffins with Human Remains Found at Governor’s Residence Months After Contractors Made Shocking Discovery
North Dakota Governor’s ResidenceCredit: Google
On May 19, contractors doing work for the North Dakota governor’s residence found human remains at the scene
The state’s Office of Management and Budget tells PEOPLE that the archaeologists flagged over 80 areas of interest and found seven coffins with remains, including those of a toddler
The remains will be reburied sometime next spring, officials said
Seven coffins containing human remains were found near the North Dakota governor’s residence, nearly five months after the startling discovery was made by contractors on the property.
The state’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in an email to PEOPLE on Tuesday, Oct. 6, that the coffins and an empty, unknown wooden box had been discovered at the site.
Preliminary analysis of the remains indicated that they consisted of two women, two men, two teenage boys and one toddler, the agency said.
Brandon Solberg, OMB’s facilities management director, said that the archaeologists completed their fieldwork on Sept. 14 and flagged over 80 anomalies or areas of interest.
He added that the archaeologists will now review and catalog the remains and objects they found during their fieldwork. Their analysis is expected to finish in early 2027.
The OMB also said it has contracted with a local funeral home, with plans to rebury the remains at a local cemetery sometime next spring.
“After the initial remains were discovered on May 19 while contractors were conducting work in the Governor’s Residence yard, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) paused work in the immediate area,” the agency said. Authorities were notified, and archaeologists with the State Historical Society of North Dakota were called in to search for additional remains using ground-penetrating radar.
“Initial results identified a total of nine additional anomalies indicating potential for 10 graves in the work area,” the OMB said at the time.
State Historical Society of North Dakota spokesperson Kara Haff told The Bismarck Tribunethat the area of where the remains were found sat on what was once the Bismarck cemetery from the mid- to late 1870s. At the time, efforts were made to move the graves from the Bismarck cemetery to St. Mary’s or Fairview cemeteries.
“They had thought in the 1880s that they had exhumed everybody,” said Haff, according to the Tribune. “There’s an article that says ‘we’ve moved everybody but two, and we expect that work to be done within the next week.’ Well, this has kind of proven otherwise.”
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PEOPLE contacted the office of North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong on Tuesday but did not receive an immediate comment.
In an earlier email to North Dakota Monitor, a spokesperson for Armstrong said that the governor “wants to ensure the remains are treated with the appropriate care and respect.”
Source: Crime