After spending an entire day digging up Pandher’s backyard, the police were suddenly staring at the remains of the missing children of Nithari — more than 30 of them mentioned in complaints that they had dismissed with a shrug. And standing alongside, watching the horrific story unfold were the distressed parents, who had time and again been shooed away from the police chowki.

All through New Year’s eve weekend, the JCB machines ploughed through the backyard, while the policemen went fishing in the drain flowing outside. Armed with sticks, they pulled out bones.

The police recovered 17 skulls and a large number of other skeletal remains which doctors identified as bones of the limbs. Skeletal remains of the thoracic and abdominal region are still missing.

With the bones came valuable articles that showed themselves to distraught parents — several slippers, sandals, school bags and a tiffin box.