Provincial police continue to investigate unidentified remains found Wednesday at a construction site west of London.

OPP forensic investigators spent Thursday at the site where the remains were found, next to Parkview elementary school in Komoka.

The OPP did not release an update about the investigation that began Wednesday after a construction crew unearthed the remains. It’s not known if they were human or animal.

A large contingent of OPP officers was at the site Thursday. At one point in the morning, some officers were on their hands and knees digging in the ground, while other officers watched in a circle around them.

Mike Spence, a London forensic anthropologist and one of the few in the province, normally takes part in local investigations when unidentified remains are found.

The site and remains are dealt with differently if they are recent — within the last 50 years — or ancient, Spence said.

“If it’s recent, then they’ll bring in a police team, recover the remains, document everything in the vicinity and ultimately there will be an autopsy to try and identify the individual and determine what happened,” he said.

“If it’s ancient, that area is held intact. We won’t take the burial out until we know what it is,” he added.

“Based on whatever information we can hand them, the (Ontario) Cemeteries Registrar will identify what particular group should be responsible for the find.

“If it’s a First Nations find, Oneida Nation of the Thames would be a good example of who would be called to deal with it,” he said.

“If it’s of European ancestry, like a coffin burial, usually a local church would take responsibility.”

Spence wasn’t called to ­investigate the Komoka find. He said the scene was being dealt with by the coroner’s office in Toronto, rather than London.

Melchers Developments, the construction company excavating the site, is in the early stages of ­clearing the lot to build 17 ­single-floor detached condominium units.

The area was cordoned off with OPP crime scene tape.

cpinkerton@postmedia.com

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