DES MOINES, Iowa — A man stumbling upon a human jaw while out walking his dog was the first sign something was amiss. Then officials uncovered something more: More than 600 sets of remains, long ago buried and forgotten, on the site where luxury condos were supposed to be built.
The remains, found on a site overlooking the Mississippi River in Dubuque, have left the nearly $60 million condo plan in limbo, and the developer has sued the nuns who sold him the property. Apparently, no one knew the pre-Civil War remains were still there.
The attorney for the Sinsinawa Dominicans Inc., an order of nuns now based in southwest Wisconsin, claims the religious order didn’t know there were any remains left. The diocese, which owned the land before the nuns, says it sincerely believed they had all been moved long ago.
The remains, mostly fragments, will be reburied in a common burial vault at Mount Olivet Cemetery.
