For two-and-a-half hours, St. Paul firefighters, using special equipment, worked to recover remains discovered just after 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.

Authorities say the remains were found by a group of urban explorers.

“It ended up being a confined space entry, pretty difficult to get into,” said Deputy Chief Roy Mokosso of the St. Paul Fire Department. “Unclear as to how long the individual was down there. They had been deceased and had been down there for a while.”

The remains were under Kellogg Boulevard along Exchange Street in a narrow space described as a ‘void’ that was within an underpass, just below the RiverCentre.

A tactical team worked methodically and carefully to pull them out.  

“They came out and rigged a pulley system to pull the victim out,” Mokosso explained. “The space was pretty deep, but again, a pretty small, confined space.”

Although this case involved a deceased person, the deputy chief says his department responds to calls like this several times a year.

“Every year we respond to a handful of accidents or injuries that are a result of urban explorers, or potentially our unsheltered community, utilizing these spaces for shelter,” Mokosso noted.

And our cameras have been at those scenes, with them, multiple times in recent years.

In 2018, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke with Travis who was trapped overnight, after falling 40 feet into a cave at Lilydale Regional Park.

“I ended up losing consciousness down there,” he said at the time.

Travis told us he was able to text a friend above ground, who called for help, but he advised other young people to be cautious.

“If you want to get out and explore and adventure, but sometimes you’ve got to watch your parameters,” Travis said. “Too far is too far.”

Mokosso says the remains have been turned over to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office, which will try to identify them and determine a cause of death.

The deputy chief notes that in many caves or voids, there’s no cellular service. Which is something he says urban explorers should consider before entering them.

“They are very dangerous, they’ve got the instability of potentially collapsing,” Mokosso said. “Also, if folks are using it for shelter and start burning something in there, carbon monoxide and asphyxiation can be an issue.”