The West Virginia State Police removed “a few bones” from beneath this porch in Paden City late Sunday night. The State Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that they are not human bones, but rather that of cattle or hog. (Photo by Lauren Riggs)

Monday night the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s office contacted Sergeant J.E. Shriver of the West Virginia State Police and indicated the bones found under a porch in Paden City were not human remains.

“They are consistent with what we thought initially,” said Wetzel County Prosecutor Timothy Haught. He said they are consistent with cattle or hog bones.

The resident of a Second Avenue home had pried up a board of their front porch Sunday and found some bones. They then contacted the Paden City Police Department, who called on Haught for assistance. They did some investigation and then contacted the WVSP who came and retrieved the bones.

“It’s been going around that there was a body under this porch,” said Haught, noting that is not true. “There were a few bones, I don’t know exactly how many, but it was what I would describe as a few bones.”

Understandably, neighbors were curious and concerned when the WVSP taped off the porch as a crime scene and used saws at about midnight to get to the bones in question. But Haught assures, there was “no body, no skeleton” found.

“This is not the first time somebody has reported bones and we’ve had to identify them,” noted Haught.