A human hand discovered by a dog breeder on Staten Island belonged to a deceased woman buried in a nearby cemetery.

Police said the severed hand found by a dog breeder on Staten Island belonged to a woman buried in a nearby cemetery more than a decade ago.

A 42-year-old man and his dog found a hand containing only an index finger and a thumb on Thursday in the woods near Amboy Road. and Cunningham Road. in the North Mount Loretto State Forest area in Charleston, police officers and a police source said.

Fingerprints helped investigators determine that the hand belonged to a 63-year-old woman who was buried in 2011 at the Resurrection Cemetery, about a mile away.

The area next to the woman’s grave was excavated on February 27 for a new burial, police said. Authorities believe the digging equipment damaged her coffin and somehow ripped off her right arm, police said.

Police said it was not clear how the woman’s hand moved about a mile to where it was found.