Human remains thought to be about 15 years old were uncovered in a chimey Friday afternoon during renovation work on the second floor of the Riverboat Gift Shop building on Silver Street.

Identification found with the remains belongs to a white male born in the late 1950s, said Natchez Police Chief Willie Huff.

Huff would not release further details and said the man’s identity was being withheld Friday night pending notification of his family.

&uot;We believe it to be a missing person, but we have no evidence of foul play at this time,&uot; Huff said.

But he added that an expert examination of the remains must be performed to tell for sure, as well as to get a more exact date of death.

Adams County Coroner James Lee said he will send the bones to a university department of anthropology today to get a more exact date of death and find out the sex of the person and his or her approximate age at time of death.

Local mason Duncan Morgan was conducting work on the chimney Friday afternoon as part of renovations to the second floor when he found human foot and leg bones in socks and cowboy boots. The bones were located above the damper of the chimney, investigators said.

Later that afternoon, police chiseled through the chimney from the inside and found the rest of a human skeleton as well as a shirt and pair of blue jeans containing a wallet with identification.

Although a more exact date of death cannot be determined without expert examination of the remains, Huff noted from the check stub that the man was still alive in 1984.

Lee said the approximate age of the remains can also be estimated &uot;by looking at the coloring of the bones and the fact that joint cartilage was still attached.&uot;