A human hand that was discovered by a dog walker in a wooded region of Staten Island, New York City, earlier this week, belonged to a woman who was buried in a nearby cemetery, according to the police, who announced the identification on Saturday.
On Thursday, a dog walker in the North Mount Loretto State Forest stumbled upon a human hand, and the police have since declared that they have resolved the mystery surrounding it.
The person who discovered the human hand in the forest notified the authorities after their dog started smelling the area. Despite using cadaver dogs to comb the woods, no additional human remains were discovered, according to the police.
Law enforcement officials revealed that they were able to determine that the hand belonged to a woman who passed away in 2011 at the age of 63 and was interred at Staten Island’s Resurrection Cemetery, thanks to fingerprint analysis.
An NYPD representative reported that law enforcement officials believe the human hand was detached from the woman’s body during the excavation of a neighboring gravesite for reburial on February 27.
Although the cemetery is only about a mile away from where the hand was discovered in the woods, police are unsure how the hand ended up there.