SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — Human remains from the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic were unearthed in the lot adjacent to the U.S. Army Reserve Center during state Department of Transportation construction Thursday on Route 61, North Manheim Township. 
 
 “It’s confirmed that there were human remains found. The lot was actually used as a burial ground for the plague (Spanish influenza) in 1918 where they dumped masses of bodies,” Corporal Michael Sadusky, of the state police at Schuylkill Haven, said Thursday. “This isn’t a criminal act. There was no misconduct at all.” 
 
 Approximately 10 bone fragments could been seen protruding from the dirt along side Route 61 South. 
 
 “One looked like a tibia, which is the long bone of the lower leg, definitely a partial mandible, which is the jaw bone, and we identified that because of the anatomic location of the tooth socket. Then there were fragments of the skull plate,” Schuylkill County Coroner Dr. David J. Moylan III said Thursday. Confirmed identification of the bones is pending further investigation. 
 
 Construction will not continue until the bones are removed. 
 
 Moylan sent photos of the bones to Dr. Dennis Dirkmatt, professor of Forensic Archeology at Mercyhurst University, Erie. The bones were not disturbed or dug out Thursday due to the sparse amount of sunlight left in the day close to 6 p.m. 
 
 “We plan to carry out further digging of the bones that have been identified. We’ll attempt to catalog them, and we will be segregating them as best we can. The bones are likely related to different individuals,” Moylan said. 
 
 The bones will be excavated and a DNA sample will be extracted today by a team of senior research associates from Mercyhurst University. 
 
 “They’ll be staying at the Simon Kramer institute here overnight. If they finish tomorrow, then we’re done,” he said. 
 
 The remains will be buried at Potter’s Field, on the property of Rest Haven Nursing Home, 401 University Dr., Schuylkill Haven. 
 
 As part of the property deed, any remains found must be given a proper burial, property owner Joan Bachman, Schuylkill Haven, said. 
 
 Bachman has owned the property since 1997. Her husband leveled the lot to provide a grassy play area for their grandson and the young kids in the neighborhood. 
 
 “We dug out about three feet of dirt to level the field, and we didn’t find any remains then,” Bachman said. 
 
 According to The Republican-Herald archives, influenza outbreaks were reported in Cressona and Schuylkill Haven on Oct. 3, 1918, requiring schools to close. 
 
 “Symptoms included very serious head colds, accompanied by high fevers and a general feeling of severe sickness. Sufferers also complained of dizzy spells and vomiting. Symptoms were sometimes gone within a few days, but some people then developed pneumonia or other complications and died,” according to the archives. “The Republican reported that the 1918 flu epidemic afflicted 17,000 Schuylkill County residents, including several thousand who died. An estimated 3,000 children became orphans.” 
 
 Moylan said his grandfather was a physician in Philadelphia during the epidemic. Though Moylan was about two years old when his grandfather died, he heard stories that caskets were impossible to find during that time because the death toll was so high. 
 
 “If you had a casket on your front porch, you had to have it chained up or people would steal it for their loved ones,” he said. 

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 SCHUYLKILL HAVEN -- There may be a delay in some construction on Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven, because while a worker was trying to dig up some dirt, he dug up some history instead. 
 
 That history includes a mass grave containing old human bones. 
 
 Joan Bachman and her husband own the land where the remains were found. When they bought the property in 1997, there were rumors that it might have been an old cemetery. 
 
 "They told us it possibly could have been a burial ground from many, many years ago, 100 years ago, so evidentally it is," Bachman said. 
 
 Historians believe the remains belong to people who died from the 1918 Spanish influenza. Records show it hit Schuylkill County hard, killing almost 1,600 people in about a month. 
 
 "There was a genuine panic; everything closed, schools, hospitals, the only thing left open were drug stores," explained Tom Drogalis of the Schuylkill County Historical Society. 
 
 Because so many people were dying so fast, historians say it wasn't uncommon for people to just be buried in a field with no markers. 
 
 "They did, indeed, have several mass potters' graves, if you will, at the time. And one of them was identified as being in Schuylkill Haven." 
 
 So now crews are collecting those bones and they'll be running tests. One of those tests will be to determine if there is any DNA that they can match with those bones to find out who they belonged to. 
 
 "There are bones in there, you can see a tibia, femur, a jaw bone and stuff like that," said Schuylkill County deputy coroner Joseph Pothering. 
 
 A forensic archeology team from Mercyhurst University in Erie will be doing the research. 
 
 For Bachman, she says she never thought buying a plot of land would lead to all this. 
 
 "It was just for the kids to hang out and play there and my husband to have something to do when he retired." 
 
 It could take weeks before the results of the forensic tests are back, but after it all the Schuylkill County officials will hold a proper burial for the remains in Schuylkill Haven.
– A construction worker may have unearthed a mass grave while digging last week on private property in Schuylkill Haven, Pa. Local historians say the bones could very well belong to those who died during the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, which wiped out 1,600 people in a month in this county alone. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it the "mother of all pandemics.") The Bachmans, who bought the land in 1997, say they were told about rumors of a possible unmarked cemetery in the area, "so evidently it is," Joan Bachman tells WNEP. The pandemic was a dire time, says the county coroner: "If you had a casket on your front porch, you had to have it chained up or people would steal it for their loved ones." "There was genuine panic," says Tom Drogalis of the Schuylkill County Historical Society. "Everything closed—schools, hospitals, the only thing left open were drug stores." The property's deed dictates that any remains get a proper burial, Bachman tells the Republican Herald. A local coroner says some of the bones found are intact enough to be identifiable with the naked eye and include a tibia, femur, and jaw bone. Mercyhurst University in Erie is sending a forensic archaeology team to investigate further, and will conduct DNA testing on the remains they find. (See why 100 bodies are in this mass grave in South Africa.)