Within an hour of Lillian Webb's startling admission of her fugitive husband's backyard burial, digging to unearth the remains was on.

Massachusetts state police joined with a forensic anthropologist affiliated with the Office of the Chief Medical Center in Boston to direct the July 13 dig.

Trooper Max DeLuca, the criminal investigation assessment officer at the Butler barracks recently assigned to the cold case, and Cpl. Chris Birckbichler, the former assessment officer handling the case, joined the investigation.

After interviewing Lillian inside her house and eliciting the admission, DeLuca and Birckbichler removed their dress shirts and ties and grabbed shovels.

But before they did, they gave her the option to temporarily leave.

“She said, 'I'm not leaving the house,'” DeLuca said. “We're like, 'Well, we're going to be digging up your husband.'”

In all, a dozen diggers armed with pickaxes, spades and shovels took part, beginning around noon.

“There were a lot of roots over top of (the burial site) so it was a tedious dig,” DeLuca said.

Close by, the anthropologist studied shovel after shovel of dirt.

“He has us digging this large area and then he's looking at changes in the soils and different colorations,” DeLuca said. “Then he's like, 'I think this is the actual hole.' He was really into it.”

Eventually, the dig hit pay dirt — a bone.

“To me,” DeLuca said, “it looked like a rock. (The anthropologist) said, 'That's a left knee cap.'”

Once the first bone surfaced about 2 p.m., the anthropologist broke out screen sifters, paint brushes and buckets.

The dig slowed down to a snail's pace as all the remains — piece by piece — were carefully gathered. Eventually, Donald Webb's entire skeleton was collected.

This would have been two days before Donald's birthday, DeLuca said.

During the process, which would not be completed until about 9:30 p.m., Massachusetts authorities brought in portable lights and set up tarps to shelter the diggers turned excavators from the rain.

Lillian appeared undaunted by the day's goings on in her backyard.

“She left at one point in time,” DeLuca said, “to take her dog for a walk, in her car, and then came back and stayed in her house the whole time.”

Representatives of the medical examiner's office eventually arrived and took the remains away for an autopsy, which was performed the following day.

A comparison of teeth to dental records confirmed the remains belonged to Webb.

“For us,” DeLuca said, “the case was over.”

Finally.