Remains of Spanish Flu victims found next to Pennsylvania highway

Remains found in an embankment next to a Pennsylvania highway may belong to people killed by the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918.

Kevin Mock, an archaeologist with PennDOT, told Reuters on Friday he could see leg bones and part of a jaw bone protruding from the embankment. He said there were no coffins.

His research found the connection of the meadow to the Spanish flu pandemic.

Most victims, Mock said, were buried without coffins. He thought it unlikely there could still be active H1N1 flu pathogens – the strain that caused the 1918 pandemic – in the bones or soil given the passage of time and the usual practice of sprinkling lye over buried without coffins.

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Story: David Dekok, Reuters | Photo: David Dekok, Reuters