Human Remains Found on UK Queen's Estate - Fox News

SANDRINGHAM, England –  Human remains have been discovered in a wooded area of Queen Elizabeth II's Sandringham estate in the east of England.

Police in Norfolk said the remains were found about 4:00 p.m. Sunday by a member of the public who was walking in the area, Sky News reported. They then reported the discovery to the authorities.

"The area has been sealed off and a detailed search is currently being carried out," police said.

No details of the age or gender of the remains, or how long they had been there, were released by police and no further details were expected to be released until later Tuesday.

A resident of the area told The (London) Daily Telegraph, "There is a heavy police presence even 24 hours after the discovery. You couldn't get very close to the site. Police said they expected to be there [Tuesday]."

The Queen's Buckingham Palace office refused to comment on the discovery, adding it was "a matter for Norfolk police," AFP reported.

The crime scene was just a mile from the Royal Stud where the Queen oversees the breeding and training of racehorses, The Telegraph reported.

Around half of the estate is let to farm tenants, with much of the remainder used for forestry. The estate also contains two studs, a fruit farm and a country park.

The royal family spent Christmas and New Year at the 19,770-acre estate -- with British media reporting the Queen and her husband Prince Philip were still in residence and had been informed of the discovery.

King George V, the Queen's grandfather, famously called "dear old Sandringham," the "place I love better than anywhere in the world."

The Queen often spends Christmas at the estate, and makes it her official base until February.

The grim discovery comes 10 months after the remains of an American man, who sent hundreds of letters to the Queen, were found in a royal park just yards from Buckingham Palace.

Robert James Moore, whose obsession with the royal family drove him to set up camp within view of the London palace, was found by a tree trimmer in March. He was thought to have died up to three years earlier.

Moore, aged in his late sixties when he died, addressed hundreds of "strange and offensive" packages to the Queen over a period of 15 years, an inquest into his death was told in September.