Submitted photo These cow bones were found Wednesday by constructions workers at the KDMC facility on Scioto Trail in Portsmouth.

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Submitted photo This old gun, likely a small-caliber revolver, was found Wednesday when workers were digging a trench for the expansion project at King’s Daughters Medical Specialties in Portsmouth.

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By FRANK LEWIS

PDT Staff Writer

A construction crew dug up some peculiar items Wednesday while excavating a trench. While digging near King’s Daughters Medical Specialties on Scioto Trail in Portsmouth, a worker uncovered some bones and an old gun.

“It was in the area where they are doing the excavating for the addition to the King’s Daughters medical facility,” Portsmouth Police Detective Sgt. Jim Charles said. “One of the excavators dug up some bones and a gun. The gun is very, very old and degraded. I know that it doesn’t work.”

Charles said the bones were examined to see if they were human. They weren’t.

“The bones were collected and examined by Dr. George Petit, and determined to be cow bones,” Charles said. “There used to be a slaughterhouse there. So we’re thinking that it was probably just a trash dumping site.”

Charles said the gun — a small-caliber revolver, by the looks of it — will probably be sent to the state crime lab to see if anything can be determined.

“It they can get a salvagable barrel, what they can do is run a ballistics check to get rifling marks and then go back to see if it’s ever been used in a crime,” Charles said. That is very doubtful, however. He said he thinks once the dirt is removed, the gun likely will fall apart.

Charles said police also found the heel of a shoe and an old roller skate. All of the items were found within a 10-foot area of the excavation, he said.

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.