Puppy uncovers human bones during beach walk

NEWBURY, Mass. - Authorities say a puppy taking a walk on a Massachusetts beach with its owner uncovered a human bone, which led to the discovery of several others.

Bill Barrett of Newbury was walking his chocolate Labrador retriever Saturday morning on Plum Island Beach when the puppy made an unusual discovery. Barrett says it appeared to be a human leg bone, and it was still covered with a sock.

Bill Barrett told CBS Boston that initially a woman looking through some debris found a bone.

"She called me over and said what do you think this is? It was a good sized bone. I said it looks like a leg bone," Barrett told CBS Boston.

Barrett then saw his dog nudging something nearby.

"I walked over there and she had found another portion of the lower leg with a foot still attached and a sock on it," Barrett said. "It's a disturbing thing to find on your beach you walk every day."

Investigators with cadaver dogs later found several more bones. Police on Sunday confirmed the bones are human.

Essex district attorney's spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan tells the Globe that police are investigating and will be looking at missing-person's cases to try to identify the remains.