A woman in Australia was shocked by a discovery of mysterious bones beneath her newly purchased home.
Carly Starr, a 41-year-old nurse, told Newsweek that she received the keys to her new home in Goulburn, a city in the Australian state of New South Wales on the country’s east coast, back in January. She is redoing the floors as “they are all so old,” and pulled up the floorboards and found the bones.
The nurse shared footage of the scene in a video from her TikTok account @carly_starr3, which has had more than 1.7 million views since it was first posted on April 9.
The clip shows Starr looking at the camera as she says: “I’m pulling up floorboards and I found bones under the house.”
The footage shows the scene of the discovery, where floorboards have been lifted out, as Starr says: “Obviously, I’m assuming they’re animal and not human. But come on, I’ll show you.”
The camera moves down closer to the site, and Starr says: “I don’t know, what do you reckon that is?” The video shows some bones scattered amid a pile of rubble.
Starr told Newsweek: “They were very small, so I figured it was an animal. I only called the police because so many people on TikTok told me too.”
Goulburn police officers, of the New South Wales (NSW) Police Force, investigated the scene and confirmed that the bones were “not human,” Starr said.
@carly_starr3 on TikTok
The latest post comes as nearly three in five American homeowners were reported to have remodeled or decorated their home in 2022, while around half made repairs, according to a survey of 46,118 U.S. homeowners conducted by Houzz, a home design website.
Interior spaces were found to be the most-popular areas to renovate in the same year, with homeowners tackling an average of nearly three interior projects at a time.
The survey found that the median spend for home renovations in 2022 was $22,000, while the median for higher-budget updates reached $140,000 or more.
‘The Bones Were Small’
The homeowner in the latest viral clip asks, “Does anyone know anything about animal bones? It doesn’t seem to have a skull,” before the clip ends.
Starr told Newsweek that she is unsure about the exact age of the house, but it was an old workers’ cottage and would have been built “sometime in the late 1800s; say, 1880 to 1900.”
While Starr doesn’t know anything about the history of the home, “the people living here before me were renting and left because of a water and damp problem,” the nurse said. “I have been having tradesman over to fix. The water and damp is part of why I have had to rip up the floors.”
Starr said the police arrived and ripped up more of the floor and “took photos like a crime scene,” measuring the length of the bones with a “special ruler” and photographing it.
She added: “The bones were small; if it was human, it would be a small baby.”
Starr believes the photos were sent to a bone expert and “they confirmed [they were] not human [bones] but didn’t say what it was.”
In a follow-up video shared on April 19, the nurse shared a screengrab of what appears to be a text message from the police that read: “Hi Carly, we have confirmed bones are not human. Regards, Goulburn police.”
Starr told Newsweek: “I guess to get a definite answer on what animal we’d need a DNA test. Anyway, I have left them [the bones] undisturbed.”
Newsweek has contacted Goulburn police for comment via the NSW police force website.
‘I Wouldn’t Assume Anything’
The latest bone mystery has intrigued users on TikTok, with some sharing their theories on the origins of the bones.
AliasMater wrote: “I wouldn’t assume anything. There are lots of cold cases.”
“Archaeologist here. Definitely animal bones,” posted @kerriann_m.
Ray commented: “most likely a cat or racoon. hard to say without a skull. (I’m a zooarchaeologist).”
Miaelizabethx wrote: “Just graduated as a forensic anthropologist and they look animal but call and get it checked.”
User megan.white710 posted: “Anatomy major here! You can see a femur but too small to be adult human & too formed to be child human. Most likely animal.”
Lux Leathercraft by Odin commented: “Looks to be a cat from the scapula and pelvis.”
“The ribs are small and same with the scapula, it could very well be bones from a few different things,” noted cavichino.
Do you have a home renovation-related video or story to share? Let us know via life@newsweek.com and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.