Woman finds human skeletons in IKEA bags

A woman was shocked when she lifted a tarp in the basement of a south Sweden church, only to find Ikea bags full of human skeletal remains.

Kicki Karlén of Kläckeberga, Sweden said she counted up to 80 people who were once buried under the floorboards of the church. The remains were stored in large Ikea shopping bags.

The woman told a local media outlet that she became furious after finding out that the bodies had been stored there since 2009, when some of the church was remodeled.

A local archaeologist said he was on a team of people called in to deal with the remains five years ago, before construction was set to begin. The team was meant to document the skeletons, some of which he said may have been over 500 years old.

The archaeologist, Ludvid Papmehl-Dufay, said the work was delayed and he didn’t know why. He said the church was meant to rebury them, under law stating they couldn’t leave church grounds.

In the time since discovery, Karlén has been pushing on her blog for someone to take responsibility for the remains.

“How would you feel if it might be your great-grandmother kept like this? Or valuable anthropological findings from the Viking Age?” Karlén wrote in her blog. “We will probably never know, because no one wants to grasp the responsibilities and give us answers.”

Contact Kristen DeSilva at kdesilva@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3895. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva