The Abridged version:
- More human remains were found during construction at the UC Davis Medical Center in February, officials confirmed this week.
- The university health system said 77 unmarked graves were discovered.
- Dozens of remains were previously found at the site, formerly the Sacramento County Hospital Cemetery at the turn of the 20th century.
Construction at the UC Davis Medical Center unexpectedly dug up human remains earlier this year, officials confirmed to Abridged by PBS KVIE on Wednesday.
Seventy-seven previously unknown burials were unearthed in February during excavation at the property on Stockton Boulevard and X Street in Sacramento, according to a public notice released by UC Davis Health on Tuesday. The remains, which range from complete skeletons to bone fragments, had no gravestones, markers or other identifiers.
The area where the remains were found overlaps with the former Sacramento County Hospital Cemetery, which operated on the site from the 1880s to the 1920s. CBS 13 first reported the remains Wednesday morning.
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UC Davis Health wrote Tuesday in its notice that there was no evidence to date of Native American origin.
A former cemetery site
This is not the first time remains have been found during construction at the UC Davis Medical Center.
In the spring of 2004, excavation for the expansion of the UC Davis Cancer Center, which is near the current site, uncovered dozens of burial sites. At the time, the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office hired a forensic anthropologist to determine the origin of the remains.
The anthropologist dated the bones to the era that the Sacramento County Hospital Cemetery was in operation toward the turn of the 20th century. The cemetery was known to exist, but its exact location was not recorded until the bones were excavated.
Those remains, 72 in total, were removed and reburied in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Sacramento with approval from the Sacramento County Superior Court.
A bronze plaque was placed near the water tower at 45th and V streets dedicated to the people buried at the former cemetery.
Correction: The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office updated its statement to Abridged by PBS KVIE after publication to clarify officials had not found evidence that the remains were Native American.
