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Bones of human infant discovered during renos on Westmount home

Montreal police are trying to determine the origin of human bones discovered by a contractor doing renovations in a Westmount home last Wednesday.

The owner of the home told CBC News the family had recently hired a contractor to remove the old ceiling panels in the basement furnace room.

While he was doing that, the owner said, he found the bones wrapped in a yellowed old newspaper among the debris.

"He was almost going to scoop it up and throw it in the garbage, then he took a second look," the homeowner said, who asked not to be identified.

At that point, he called her to come downstairs to look at what he'd found.

"Being in the medical field, I could clearly see it was an infant — my guess, quite premature. It was very tiny. Not normal size. And very, very old."

She said they called police immediately. A team of investigators spent several hours at the house on Victoria Avenue looking for clues.

Coroner confirms bones are human

"We know for a fact those bones are pretty old," said Montreal police Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant.

He said police investigators found nothing at the house to indicate a crime had been committed.

The bones were sent to the coroner for tests.

Geneviève Guilbault, spokeswoman for the Quebec coroner's office, confirmed in an email that the bones are human.

She said forensic experts are examining them to determine their age and any other information useful to the investigation.

That task is made more difficult, she said, because of the altered state of the bones.

'Very old' newspaper

The homeowner said she couldn't venture a guess as to how long the bones had been there, except that the newspaper 'was very old' and yellowed.

The homeowner said she did not take a careful look at the newspaper, however, she remembers glimpsing an ad for a product that was selling for 25 cents.

"When was the last time something has been advertised for 25 cents?" she asked.