Box found on side of road contained human remains

DUXBURY – When Chandler Rodriguez saw a wrapped box on the side of the street in his neighborhood Sunday morning, he immediately knew something was wrong.

“It struck us as odd, a little suspicious,” Rodriguez, 21, said.



Authorities confirmed Monday afternoon that tests show the remains found at the intersection of Alexander Way at Walker Road are human.



Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton said investigators had not yet identified the remains as of Monday afternoon because an autopsy had not yet been performed.



Middleton would not comment on the condition of the remains or what parts of the human body were recovered in the box.



Rodriguez and his father, Hector, were almost home around 10 a.m. Sunday when they drove by the box about a quarter-mile from their home. Rodriguez said the box wasn’t in anyone’s front yard, but it was near bushes and the woods across the street from one of the neighborhood houses. He said all of the houses are located very close together.



“I jumped out of the car and investigated it and when I went to push it over, I realized it was much heavier than I thought, probably about 60-70 pounds,” Rodriguez said. “Originally we flipped it over on its side to see what was on it and it said, ‘U-Haul 1999.’”



Rodriguez said the year was in ink, printed “fairly large and next to the U-Haul logo.” He said there was an obvious “horrid” smell, like something was rotting inside the box, when he approached the box, which he said was a “4-by-4 cardboard U-Haul box meticulously wrapped with industrial cellophane, probably 15-20 times.”



He said he and his father went home and debated whether to call police or go back to take a second look at the box.



“We ended up going down there with box cutters,” he said. “We had started to open it, then after one tiny cut into it, the smell was so horrid that we stopped. We thought it was going to be a dead animal when we started to cut into it because of the smell.”



Rodriguez said the box had slight damage on the sides when he first discovered it.



“It looked as if someone pushed it out of a car or it dropped out of a truck,” he said.



Rodriguez said he never expected that there were human remains in the box.



“It’s obviously a very depressing and saddening thing for anyone to find out,” he said. “It’s extremely odd that it happened in this neighborhood. This is such a family-oriented neighborhood ... everyone’s very close.”



The district attorney’s office said “there is no indication of a generalized threat to the public,” but did not elaborate.



‘‘There had been some inquiries from Duxbury residents on that issue,’’ Middleton said.



When officers arrived Sunday, they say they noticed a strong odor coming from within the box, which was partially opened. A state police bomb unit x-rayed the package and determined that it contained what appeared to be human remains. The remains were given to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for examination and identification.



Anyone with information about the remains is urged to contact investigators at 508-923-4205 or 781-934-5656.



Patriot Ledger reporters Patrick Ronan and Neal Simpson contributed to this story. Reach Cody Shepard at cshepard@ledger.com.



