Human Remains Found Under Street Near Downtown El Paso

Photo bymike

Human remains were discovered in a historic neighborhood just north of downtown El Paso on Friday, May 31.

The corpse was uncovered by workers excavating a portion of the street across from Mundy Park in the Sunset Heights-adjacent neighborhood of Mundy Heights, according to a published report.

The medical examiner later determined the remains found were 140-years-old. EPPD told the news station they are “aware” the area at or near where the corpse was discovered was once a cemetery. While the remains are most likely that of a long-forgotten grave, Crimes Against Persons is looking into it.

Photo bymike

El Paso’s Buried History

Over the hundreds of years of El Paso’s existence, numerous sites have served as cemeteries and burying grounds. Mundy Heights near Sunset Heights, where Mundy Park is now located, was one of those old graveyards, according to the El Paso County Historical Society.

It was established by the city in 1882, per an article published by the society, but because the loose gravel soil made it poorly suited for use as a cemetery it was abandoned several years later when Concordia Cemetery was created in 1884.

In total, five burial grounds once dotted the downtown landscape, including Campo Santo that used to be in the area where the ballpark the Triple-A baseball team plays in now stands.

Campo Santo is Spanish for ‘saint’s field’ or ‘blessed field,’ but since April 2014 El Pasoans have been calling it ‘right field’ -- Dead Reckoning: Where Were El Paso’s Earliest Cemeteries? by Mark Cioc-Ortega

Photo byPSRBB Architects

Cleveland Square, across from the ballpark, as well as the land where the El Paso Museum of History and the El Paso Public Library Main Branch sit are also former resting places that were once part of the old Fort Bliss Cemetery.

When the library was built it 1904, the bodies were moved to Concordia Cemetery, but many former and current staff members who believe the library is haunted are convinced not all the bodies were found and moved.

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