WHITE HALL - Various agencies investigated skeletal remains discovered at 113 N. Main St in White Hall by a construction company charged with demolishing the building, which was most recently a beauty salon.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Officials from the White Hall Police Department told Riverbender.com the remains were part of an educational display model often housed in doctors' offices and schoolhouses. The building was formerly a doctor's office, so police said there was nothing nefarious about the otherwise grizzly find of human bones half-buried in the basement of the building.
The findings were jointly investigated by the White Hall Police Department, the Greene County Coroner's Office and the Illinois State Police Crime Scene Unit. A preliminary investigation by a forensic anthropologist advised the bones were more than a century old, according to a release from the White Hall Police Department.
Following that investigation, authorities concluded on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017 the bones belonged to a human skeleton model, which was in the building during its stint as a doctor's office from 1920-1969. The White Hall Police Department took statements from individuals who saw the model hanging in the office in the 1950s.
"There is no evidence to believe any foul play is suspected," White Hall Police Chief Luke Coultas said in a release. "Also, we want to make clear that the building in which the investigation was taking place was not one of the buildings involved in the fires that occurred last week. It was a building next to where the fires occurred. This building did receive damages from the heat and smoke, but did not actually burn."
