EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Human remains were found on Friday, May 31 near the Sunset Heights neighborhood in a site that was reportedly old cemetery site, according to the El Paso Police Department (EPPD).

At 12:35 p.m. Friday, officers responded to Prospect and Porfirio Diaz streets on a public assistance call due to workers finding human remains while working on the road with an excavator, according to EPPD.

EPPD said they are “aware” that the area is an old cemetery site.

An article published by the El Paso County Historical Society stated that a cemetery was established in the Downtown El Paso area in 1882.

The cemetery was located in Mundy Heights (near to Sunset Heights), most likely at or near where Mundy Park is now located, according to the article.

The article explains there’s not much information about the cemetery. However, according to Lone Star, one of El Paso’s “earliest” newspapers, the city purchased 1.5 acres from H. M. Mundy for $75.

“The land was approximately 3/4 mile west of the Sunset Heights reservoir (which is located near the intersection of River and Randolph). And it was poorly suited for use as a cemetery,” read the article.

“Very serious complaints reach us regarding the new cemetery established by the city on the hill west of the water works,” wrote the Lone Star on September 9, 1882. “The soil is a loose gravel in which it is claimed that it is next to impossible to dig a decent grave. Several burials have been delayed, after the corpse and funeral procession had reached the cemetery, by the caving in of the walls of the grave and the covering up of the box provided in the bottom of the grave to receive the coffin, it being necessary to keep the mourners waiting until the grave could be cleared out.”

Crimes Against Persons is looking into the incident, according to EPPD.

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