Skeletal remains were found in the vicinity of LaGuardia Airport in Queens on Tuesday evening, according to authorities, at a border fence tucked into a remote side area of the airport grounds. By early Wednesday, the medical examiner's office and an NYPD vehicle were both stationed at the scene as investigators worked to sort out how the bones ended up there.
Sources familiar with the investigation told NBC New York that the remains were located at the border fence in a remote side area of the airport property. The Port Authority is also investigating the discovery, and as of Wednesday morning, the case remained an open and active inquiry with no further details released about the nature or origin of the remains.
A Familiar Location for LaGuardia
This is not the first time bones have surfaced near the airport's perimeter. Skeletal remains were last found near LaGuardia in August 2012, when those bones turned up at the airport's fence along the edge of Flushing Bay, the same outlet reports. That earlier discovery began when an airport maintenance worker clearing tall grass, weeds, and leaves beyond the fence line came across what looked like a human bone, according to a separate NBC New York account of the 2012 case.
Those bones, which included a partial skull, were turned over to the medical examiner's office, where investigators determined they were human remains rather than animal bones. Officials at the time estimated the bones may have been in the marsh for up to a year, as the medical examiner analyzed them.
Bones Turned Up in More Than a Dozen Spots
The 2012 discovery turned out to be far more extensive than a single set of bones. The Port Authority ultimately discovered bones in at least 17 places near the shoreline that year, with investigators believing many of them had been unearthed by weather events rather than deposited all at once. Responding Port Authority police officers found additional pieces of remains as they arrived on the scene that August, according to the Daily Mail.
The medical examiner confirmed at the time that the bones belonged to a person, and NYPD detectives reviewed missing-person cases in an effort to identify the victim, per the same report. Authorities said then that the remains may have been at the location for as long as a year, though it's unclear whether that 2012 case was ever conclusively resolved based on the available record.
What Happens Next
For now, the latest investigation into Tuesday's discovery remains ongoing, with the Port Authority and NYPD both involved as the medical examiner's office works to determine more about the remains found at the fence line. Anyone with information related to unidentified remains can find resources through the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner, which posts information about unidentified persons in New York City to NamUs.
