Police in Jersey have said that bone fragments found in the cellar of a former children's home there could suggest homicide.
They have been investigating Haut de la Garenne following claims of abuse.
So far, seven milk teeth and 30 bone fragments have been found - some of which are human.
There is evidence some of the remains had been burnt in a fireplace. The home closed in 1986.
Deputy chief officer Lenny Harper said some of the bones indicate a homicide or an unexplained death.
'Our anthropologist has indicated certain features on one or two of the bones that we are looking at,' he said.
'There is no doubt there are the remains of children in that cellar and no-one would expect us to walk away and leave it.'
He continued: 'We have sent the bones off to be tested and if the results show they died in the '50s or '60s or more recently we would say it is a homicide inquiry.'
Mr Harper added that the list of suspects in the inquiry had now grown from around 40 to 70.
'They will all be questioned and most of them will be arrested,' he added.
So far only one man has been arrested in connection with alleged child abuse at Haut de la Garenne.
The former home became the centre of inquiry in February after the discovery of what was thought at the time to be part of a child's skull.
Following the find, scores of people came forward claiming they were abused at the home. Some have talked of underground punishment rooms where they were drugged, raped and beaten.
Forensic teams subsequently uncovered a network of four secret underground chambers at the site where they found the teeth and bone fragments.
In other chambers, officers also found shackles, a blood-stained bath and the haunting message 'I've been bad for years and years' scrawled on a wooden post.
