Human remains in Oviedo become unearthed during construction project
OVIEDO, Fla. - Forgotten graves in Oviedo have just been unearthed.
Crews were working to pave a road leading into Boston Cemetery when they found human remains underneath the road.
Today, the cemetery sits in between two neighborhoods. There are houses on one side and an apartment complex and tennis court on the other.
There’s only one road leading into the cemetery. The fight to get it paved has been going on for more than two decades.
Janice Davis Boston has been coming to the Boston Cemetery since she was a little girl.
It’s named after her husband’s family. He’s buried there, along with Boston’s mother, brother, father, and grandmother.
Boston says she and her brother talked with Oviedo’s City Council about paving the road 20 years ago.
"They would come out periodically and put that on the road and smooth it down," said Boston. "If I came out and there were holes and everything, I would call and remind them that they said that they were going to do it."
About three years ago, a group called Oviedo Citizens in Action got involved.
The group’s treasurer, Danny McKinney, says they convinced the Council to dedicate some money the City got from President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill.
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"In between that time, they've come out, surveyed the property and determine the cost is much higher," explained McKinney.
So that caused another hold-up.
When the City sent a surveyor out, they found something that would delay the project yet again.
"They came out, hired a company to come out the ground penetrating radar and discovered ten remains," said McKinney.
All but one are unidentified. Crews excavated them, and relocated them into the cemetery itself.
Boston says she isn’t surprised about that.
"I'm sure there probably a lot of graves that are probably undiscovered out here."
She says records keeping here wasn’t always all that great, and there are still graves without markers and headstones left blank throughout the cemetery.
Figuring that out will be a project for another day.
For now, Boston and McKinney are just excited to finally make progress with the road.
Oviedo Citizens in Action says the project to pave the road should be done in another couple of months.