The discovery was made after the homeowner’s dog dug up the teeth. The homeowner then called police.
HONDO, Texas — A mystery in Hondo after more than 100 teeth were found buried in a family’s yard.
Hondo Police Chief Justin Soza says he was just having his morning coffee on Tuesday, when detectives told him of the bizarre discovery.
“They’re like, hey Chief, so we just took a call, and we dug up a bunch of what we believe to be human teeth,” said Chief Soza.
Chief Soza says a dog initially found the teeth, dug them up, then the homeowner called police.
“We start going through the motions. Was there a skull? Was there bones? What? I need more details, guys. and they’re like, this is what we’ve got,” said Chief Soza.
Detectives took the teeth to a local dentist, who Chief Soza says, was able to determine they were human.
“He’s like, these teeth had to be removed from a live individual, because they were able to be removed with their root,” said Chief Soza.
Detectives also found dentures buried with the teeth, and the dentist was able to determine, they were at least 50 years old.
Chief Soza says they were able to determine through historical records, a family who previously lived at the home, practiced dentistry.
“I believe the grandparents were dentists in Hondo about 50 to 70 years ago, and they ran their practice in a building, behind the house,” said Chief Soza.
Through conversations with the family, detectives were able to figure out the teeth were buried in the yard as a dental tradition or folklore, for good luck.
“We also learned that there was an old wives tale, that dentists tend to bury teeth in the yard to, like when you’re selling a house as a kind of like a the way people do it with a religious item placing it into hopefully the house sells, so on and so forth. So that was a really cool thing that we were able to learn from that,” said Chief Soza.
Chief Soza says his detectives were also able to speak with a family member who told them exactly where the teeth were buried, putting a cap on the teeth mystery.
“I would just recommend if anybody were to ever find any type of human remains, whether it be teeth, bones, whatever, please contact your local law enforcement, just so that that way we can do our due diligence and figure out where that stuff came from,” said Chief Soza.
Chief Soza says the teeth are currently in their evidence room, and they will go through the process of disposing of them when they receive a court order.