The owner of a Florida home undergoing a renovation made a horrifying discovery when he unearthed human remains in his backyard on Wednesday — with blackened “toes sticking out of the ground,” he said.
The gruesome find was made at a private home being offered for rent in Jacksonville just before 7 p.m., law enforcement officials said.
The homeowner was doing yard work when he partially uncovered the body, he told News4Jax.
A woman helping with the home makeover and working indoors at the time said the owner rushed inside, telling her to call 911.
“I said OK. I was shaken,” she told the station.
The woman, who did not wish to be identified, described seeing human feet protruding from the ground in the yard.
“They were all black and stuff. But I guess that was from decomposing,” she said.
“I just hope that everything gets solved,” the shaken woman added. “My reaction to this is just craziness.”
A Jacksonville County Sheriff’s deputy responded to the house and “observed two feet sticking up out of the ground,” according to an incident report obtained by The Post.
The body was dug up and taken to the Duval County Medical Examiner’s Office. It has not been identified as of Friday, and there was no word yet on the cause and manner of death.
A forensic team erected blue tents in the yard and spent hours shifting through soil in search of possible clues on Thursday.
The owner of the property where the harrowing discovery was made said he did not know who the body belonged to, or how it ended up on his land.
“I want to offer my condolences to the young person or to the person they found at my property,” he told News4Jax.
“No family at all should have to go through that at all. That’s the first thing I want to say.”