Bones found in wood

8:59am Sunday 18th May 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

CRIME scene investigators were called to Knutsford last week after bones and an axe were found buried in a woodland.

The items, which had been wrapped in a carpet, were discovered by Alex Ewart as he dug a hole in Thorneyholme Drive.

He alerted police who spent five hours at the scene before finally ruling out foul play.

Experts called him at his home at about 8pm on Wednesday to say he had actually found the bones of a decomposed sheep.

On Thursday morning the Scotsman was not convinced.

He said it was a strange find in an area surrounded by residential streets.

"I've got no idea why it would be there," he said.

Mr Ewart had been tidying up part of the wood, where children play, for about six months.

He wanted to move bricks that were scattered across the ground near the entrance to the site.

As he began digging a hole to put the bricks into, he uncovered bones.

Over two nights he pulled out more pieces of bone - and a gold ring.

"I started to get a bit suspicious because the bone had been sawed," he said.

Then on Tuesday night he discovered the piece of carpet.

When he unravelled it, the axe, a meat cleaver and more bones were inside.

Neighbours told Mr Ewart to call police.

At about 2pm on Wednesday two officers arrived.

They had just taped off the entrance to the wood near the junction with Beech Drive when the Guardian - tipped off by a resident - arrived. Sergeant Sarah Heath said crime scene investigators were on route, but would say little else.

"At this point we don't know what's in there," she said.

Mr Ewart had taken some of the evidence to his garden.

As the crime scene investigator arrived to take photographs, neighbours were sitting in their gardens watching the drama unfold.

A teenager pretended to duck under the police tape and was reprimanded by the sergeant.

Children playing in the street asked if a skeleton had been found.

A 34-year-old mother-of-three said the youngsters often played in the wood.

"They love going in there," she said.

Police taped off part of Mr Ewart's garden where the evidence lay on the lawn.

Parents then began arriving at nearby Manor Park Primary School to collect their children.

The mums and youngsters soon began asking what was happening.

During the afternoon detective constable Stuart York of the specialist investigation unit also arrived.

At about 4pm he said officers still did not know if the bones were human. "They're going to be packaged and taken to someone who's forensically qualified to tell us what they are," he said.

After 4pm two more officers arrived to guard the scene while the evidence was sent to a pathologist.

He was not sure so he sought the advice of a colleague who said the bones belonged to a sheep.

Last week police could not reveal more details about the bones but said they were not concerned about the axe or the meat cleaver.

"There was no cause for police involvement," said a spokesman.

However, Mr Ewart plans to continue digging.