By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
Local law enforcement officials followed up on a request by a federal agency about 10:30 a.m. Friday and found a field full of bones at 109 Warner St.
The Warner Street resident said he believed the bones belonged to humans, but after a couple of hours investigating, officials
were pretty confident the bones were those of pigs or chickens.
“We got a call from a federal agency that there was a complaint in the area that needed to be responded to,” said Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez. “We are always going to take our time to do our due diligence and take care of our community.”
Despite concerns about the credibility of the complaint, law enforcement checked the area closely to follow through on the complaint, looking under the house as well as searching an adjacent field.
About 1 p.m., the sheriff’s office turned the potential crime scene over to the Del Rio Police Department, which later announced that the bones at the site were those of animals.
A rumor that circulated through Del Rio via social media was that there was a raid serving a Kinney County warrant at the home but this was not the case, Martinez said. “We served a Kinney County warrant at GEO about the same time,” Martinez said.
Juan Hernandez, a mechanic who lives next door to the residence where investigators conducted the search, said he wasn’t surprised.
“People have lived around here for a long time, and they’d have a big cookout and just throw the bones everywhere rather than just put them in the trash,” Hernandez said. “This goes back for many years.”
In the 1960’s, there was a slaughterhouse in the area but officials felt the bones were too small to be from there.
The 109 Warner resident was convinced he had quite the find. When a staff member of The 830 Times pulled up, the man quickly told them about the finds behind his home.
“I’ve got more than 10,000 artifacts in my house,” he said. “I’ve talked to the governor’s office, the White House; everybody is interested.”
Hernandez said the neighbor had shown him several items what he claimed were historic artifacts.
“I didn’t want to insult him, but it looked like rocks to me,” Hernandez said.
The writer can be reached at joelalangton@gmail.com .
