Members of a Tamaqua family settling into a newly purchased house were rattled by a gruesome discovery.

Carefully hidden and tucked away where nobody would ever think to look were skeleton remains of an infant, apparently stashed there for decades, perhaps nearly a century.The remains were uncovered by accident in February when floorboards were pried up as the family prepared to do renovations.The bones were found inside a bankers box along with an old sweater in the century-old house on the 200 block of Clay Street.A family member spoke to the Times News to confirm the discovery. However, family members wish to protect their privacy.Police were summoned to the scene and the remains eventually were turned over to Schuylkill County Coroner David J. Moylan III.In turn, the bones were examined this week by the Department of Applied Forensic Science at Mercyhurst University in Erie."The remains are from a baby between 38 weeks, which is gestational, to 40 weeks, which is at birth," Moylan said Tuesday.The sex of the baby could not be determined.Moylan said two newspapers were found with the remains. One was a German language paper from 1862. The other was an English newspaper from 1924.Authorities estimate the remains to have been stashed away at the location sometime during or after Jan. 22, 1924.Examination revealed the bones show no sign of trauma.At this point, it appears there is no cause to move forward on a legal basis, Moylan said.It's a crime to conceal the death of an infant, but the circumstances with the case are unusual given the passing of so many years."If a crime was committed 93 years ago there'd be nobody to prosecute," Moylan said.While DNA could be extracted, it's an expensive process and probably wouldn't produce results."There'd be no forensic import. A DNA profile can be compared to a bank of DNA of missing persons. But we don't think there'd be any match," Moylan said. In addition, trying to find next of kin after so many years would be difficult.The reason why the bones were hidden beneath an attic floor is anybody's guess.It is known that, in the 1920s, there often was a negative societal stigma associated with a child born out of wedlock or a stillborn birth.Anybody with information is welcome to come forward, Moylan said.