Ontario couple handed $5k bill after finding 400-year-old skeleton in their backyard

A couple in Point Edward, Ontario is feeling haunted after finding the skeleton of an aboriginal woman who lived more than 400 years ago.

The haunting is less supernatural than financial; the province has handed the couple a $5,000 bill to cover the costs of excavation and assessing the bones, according to the Toronto Star. Property owner Nicole Sauve told the media she and her husband were digging to build a fence when they found a woman's skeleton.

They called the police and an investigation found she was an aboriginal woman, likely in her 20s, who probably lived around the early 1600s, according to the Sarnia Observer. She was reburied in Aamjiwnaang First Nation's cemetery.

But Sauve was more surprised to find that she had unearthed a mess of legal headaches along with this piece of Ontario's cultural history.

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"I was very angry. I'm still very angry," Sauve told CBC's Ontario Morning.

Under Ontario law, property owners are responsible for remains found on their land, but Sauve said she can legally dispute the charges. Sauve's family isn't the first to become buried in legal responsibility after finding human remains.

A couple in Chatham, Ontario discovered this winter the property they had bought was a former church cemetery, according to the Chatham Daily News. The land owners, Heather and Jack Tape, said they were saddled with the responsibility of moving every body at a cost that could exceed $100,000, unless they won the appeal.

In Manitoba, homeowners wouldn't have to pay for an archaeological assessment after finding surprise remains, Chatham Daily News reported.

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Perhaps it's time Ontario took a cue from our western neighbours and brought our burial laws out of the past, before homeowners begin to bury history — and their shovels too.