Human Bones Found on OC Streetcar Project Construction Site

Update on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020: Human remains found at a construction site for the OC Streetcar project nearly a week ago were determined to be from someone of Native American heritage and are more than a century old.

Earlier: Construction workers on the OC Streetcar project found human remains at a work site today, triggering a homicide investigation.

The bones were found Wednesday morning in the 2000 block of West Fifth Street in a former scrap yard that workers were converting to a maintenance yard for the project, Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

An anthropologist assigned to the project said the bones appeared to be human, which was confirmed by Orange County coroner's officials and police, Bertagna said.

A crime scene has been established as police investigate, he said.

Before the property was a scrap yard, it was the site of homes, Bertagna said.

The bones appeared to have been buried six feet in the ground, he added.