Family finds human skull and bones during landscaping work on their new home

By Libby Galvin for the Daily Mail

Published: 06:06 EST, 28 January 2013 | Updated: 08:44 EST, 28 January 2013

The former owner of a home where human remains were found in the back garden was being questioned by police yesterday.

The shocking discovery was made while the residents currently living at the house in Santa Ana, a town in Orange County, California, were landscaping their property on Sunday afternoon.

Forewarning: The homeowners said that when they bought the property from Dominguez, seen taped off here, he told them bones were buried in the yard but explained them as being of an animal

Forewarning: The homeowners said that when they bought the property from Dominguez, seen taped off here, he told them bones were buried in the yard but explained them as being of an animal

'We had somebody bring over a tractor and they just put it underneath and they lifted it and a skull just fell over,' said the homeowner, who did not want to be named and is described by friends in the community as being 'in shock'.

The coroner's office confirmed that the bones, discovered on block 2500 North Hesperian Street, were human, but they have not yet been identified as belonging to a male or female and a cause of death is yet to be established.

An anthropologist is due to examine the skeletal remains later today.

Police said that the current homeowners are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

Investigation: The body's cause of death and identity is yet to be found with no signs of trauma immediately seen

Investigation: The body's cause of death and identity is yet to be found with no signs of trauma immediately seen

The current owners of the house live next door and bought the second property when the former owner, identified as Larry T. Dominguez, was forced to sell the house due to lapsed insurance payments after the house burned down in 2006 during an electrical fire.

He had lived there for over 20 years and was described by neighbours variously as 'friendly', 'strange' and as a recluse.

The house was rebuilt after the fire and other members of the family moved in just under a year ago. The bones were discovered during ongoing renovations on the property.


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