July 16, 2008
By Marshall Zelinger
ABC affiliate in Colorado Springs, CO
PUEBLO COUNTY - Imagine keeping a human skeleton in your home for 20 years, turning it over to authorities and not getting arrested. Robert Owens called the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office Wednesday morning to let them know he had a skeleton in his closet. Turns out, the skeleton is most likely the remains of a Native American. Owens is interested in geology and collects rocks, fossils, and any artifact.
"Always studied rocks, this place is covered in rocks," says Owens from his Pueblo County home. "I never would have disturbed it. I thought it was a root, the skull cap."
Owens found the remains while looking for artifacts near the Huerfano River.
"Finger bones, all the vertebrae in the back. Skull was broke in two. Two teeth," says Owens.
Those bones are no longer a part of his collection after calling the Sheriff's Office.
"Boy, five minutes they were here, you talk about 'Johnny on the spot,'" says Owens. "They thought it was a murder, but I didn't kill nobody."
"He has quite a collection," says Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor. "(These are) the only ones that we're interested in at this point."
Deputies took photos of the bones and sent them to Dr. Diane France, a forensic anthropologist in Fort Collins. She confirmed the remains were that of a Native American. According to the Sheriff's Office, Dr. France has been consulted on numerous bone cases in the past.
"The procedure at this time will be to involve the state archaeologist, return to the scene, make an assessment of historical value," says Pueblo County Coroner Jim Kramer.
"Do these reach the level of historic significance to the state of Colorado and the county of Pueblo?"
After 20 years, why exactly did Owens decide to pick up the phone Wednesday morning?
"I was thinking bad karma. Couldn't sleep at night, had to get it off my conscience," says Owens. "Getting old and tired and wanted to get it off my chest."
Kramer says if the remains are identified as a Ute Tribe Indian, they will most likely be turned over to the Ute Tribe.
"One of our primary concerns is respecting the dignity of the deceased individual," says Kramer.