Polish prosecutors have discontinued an investigation into human skeletons found at a site in present-day Poland where German dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders spent time during World War II due to a lack of evidence.
Officials said they called an end to the probe as the advanced state of decay made it impossible to determine the cause of death, a spokesperson said Monday.
The remains were found February 24 at Wolf’s Lair, the home of Nazi war criminal Herman Goring, in a complex which served as Hitler‘s chief headquarters from 1941 to 44 when the area was part of Germany.
The compound of about 200 Nazi bunkers and military barracks hidden in deep woods was the site of the failed assassination attempt on Hitler by Col. Claus Stauffenberg on July 20, 1944. The site is now a tourist attraction.
The spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in nearby Ketrzyn town, Daniel Brodowski, said police officers secured the remains after they were found by a local group, Fundacja Latebra, which searches for historical objects.
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It was previously reported that five human skeletons were discovered all of which were missing their hands and feet.
A forensic medical expert examined the remains under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office, which was trying to determine if manslaughter had occurred.
It discontinued the investigation in late March due to a lack of evidence that a crime had been committed, Brodowski told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.
“The expert stated that the preserved bone remains were of human origin and came from at least four people, three of whom were most likely middle-aged men, and the fourth was a child several years of age whose sex cannot be determined,” Brodowski wrote.
But due to advanced decay of the remains, it was no longer possible to determine the cause of death, he said, noting that at least several dozen years had passed.
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Latebra is one of the few organisations with permission to carry out archaeological research at the site, The Guardian reports.
Oktavian Bartoszewski, who has been working with the research association at the site for some years, said the team was “completely shocked” to discover after discovering a skull around 10cm underground in February while looking for buried wooden flooring in the home, which burned down in 1945.
The team immediately informed local law enforcement.
“After the administrators of the site and forensic scientists gained an overview and nothing pointed to a recent crime, it was decided to lay the skeleton bare,” Bartoszewski previously told German news outlet Der Spiegel.
Further excavation was carried out, revealing five skeletons believed to be three adults, a teenager and a baby.
“That was the most horrible thing we found,” he said of the infant remains. “They were all lying next to each other, in the same direction.”
None of the remains had traces of clothing and no personal effects were found among them, meaning the corpses were probably stripped before being put in their final resting place.
Speculation surrounds whether Göring knew the bodies had been buried below his living quarters, or whether they had been left there after the of World War II.
Germany news reports said the family could have been executed in a mass killing, possibly but not necessarily carried out by the Nazis, as per MailOnline.
