Nature's Mummies

[Mighty_Emperor]

I'm going to be monitoring this news anyway so I thought I might as well share

I'm separting it form the Incorruptibles:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8950

even thouh it may have some bearing on it as these are finds without any religious claims attached.

One of the most famous natural mummies is that of Frances Alice Knight - 1967 found in the cupboard of Sarah Jane Harvey.

Mammoth Book of Murder and Science (2000) page 361 - 76.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841191272/

I also found another forenisc case in:

David Bowen Body of Evidence (2003) pages 227 - 228
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841197394/

The common factor there is warm dry air.

Other examples from different environments, i.e., cold and dry, include Otzi (worthy of their own thread) and Mallory:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/334220.stm

http://classic.mountainzone.com/everest/99/north/disp5-2simo.html

http://classic.mountainzone.com/everest/99/north/digital-mallory/mallory.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/lost/search/day.html

http://www.mummytombs.com/news/1999/5.everest.htm


Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine (1999)
by Jochen Hemmleb, Larry A. Johnson, Eric R. Simonson, William E. Nothdurft
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0898866995/


The Ghosts of Everest: The Authorised Story of the Search for Mallory & Irvine (2000)
by Jochen Hemmleb, Larry A. Johnson, Eric R. Simonson
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0330393790/


The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mt. Everest (2001)
by Conrad Anker (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684871521/


The Second Death of George Mallory: The Enigma and Spirit of Mount Everest (2001)
by Reinhold Messner, Tim Carruthers (Translator)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312268068/


Last Climb: The Legendary Everest Expeditions of George Mallory
by David F. Breashears, Audrey Salkeld, John Mallory
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0792275381/

-----------------
So on with the news - thanks to Mummy News for some good pointers (although the most tantilising news story is difficult to track down).

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I'll deal with that case first - a remarkably well preserve body was found in a barrel in construction yard.

Accidentally mummified woman reveals secrets of her murder (timesunion.com)
"Detectives said they were able to quickly identify the remarkably preserved corpse over the weekend because of a bracelet on her right hand that was inscribed with her maiden name....

She also wore a wedding band and in her pockets was about 0 in currency issued in the 1940s. The tiny vertebrae in her neck were crushed, which led a coroner to determine she had been strangled 58 years ago."

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStorie...category=REGION&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=2/9/2004

The link is dead but digging around the Times Union site I find:

BRACELET THE KEY TO A 1946 KILLING
02/09/2004 Page: A1
Police conclude woman found in barrel was strangled by her husband during stroll Albany On a gray Sunday in the fall of 1946, Emma Perreault Moccio slipped on her brown coat and eyeglasses and walked to her death with the husband she really didn't know.
Shopkeepers along Pearl Street would later tell detectives that nothing seemed unusual when the gray-haired, 71-year-old woman and her younger husband strolled past them toward the marshlands, fields and marble company where Ralph Moccio had been embraced as a reliable and talented immigrant worker.

However, links on from there fail and they are clearly having torubles with the secure area of their site (I'll try again later).

[edit: It is probably this link:

http://www.timesunion.com/archives/secure/docheckout.asp?DBLIST=al04&DOCNUM=5659 ]

I did track other news mentions of this:

Last modified Sunday, February 8, 2004 9:59 PM PST

Police identify body as that of woman missing since 1940s

By: - North County Times

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A body found buried at a construction site has been identified as that of a woman missing for more than 57 years, police said Sunday.

Construction workers excavating a vacant lot Friday uncovered a 55-gallon drum containing the body of Emma Moccio, 71. Police believe she was killed by her husband, who had worked at a marble and stone business that once stood on the lot.

An autopsy found that Moccio had been strangled, Albany police Detective James Miller said.

Moccio disappeared Nov. 17, 1946, as police were looking for her husband, Ralph, in the shooting of a co-worker. Detectives went to interview Emma Moccio, but were never able to find her, Miller said.

Police did find Ralph Moccio, who was later imprisoned for killing a Jersey City, N.J., woman in 1937. Ralph Moccio, known as Michael Manzia in New Jersey, committed suicide while in prison there, authorities said.

Investigators identified the woman by a bracelet she was wearing that was engraved with her maiden name.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/02/09/backpage/2_8_0421_25_15.txt

and:

Posted on Mon, Feb. 09, 2004

Body of woman missing for 57 years is found

ALBANY -- A body found buried at a construction site has been identified as that of a woman missing for more than 57 years, police said Sunday.

Construction workers excavating a vacant lot Friday uncovered a 55-gallon drum containing the body of Emma Moccio, 71. She was wearing a bracelet engraved with her maiden name. Police believe that she was killed by her husband. An autopsy found that Moccio had been strangled, police said.

Moccio disappeared Nov. 17, 1946, as police were looking for her husband, Ralph, who was later imprisoned for killing a Jersey City, N.J., woman in 1937.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/2004/02/09/news/nation/7910924.htm

But nothing else on the state of the body.

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Ancient tomb discovered intact in Xinjiang

http://www.chinaview.cn 2004-02-25 10:37:56


URUMQI, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- A farmer in Turpan in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, recently found a well-preserved ancient tomb on his farm.

The farmer, Halik, discovered the tomb when he was working in the field. Archaeologists said it could date back to the early years of the 20th century.

The trapezoid-shaped coffin is 2 meters long, 50 cm at the upper border and 60 cm at the bottom border. It was covered with red paint with patterns of flowers such as lotuses and peonies.

Inside was a mummified man dressed in cotton-padded clothes, a cap on his head and face covered by a document paper. So far, archaeologists have no information on the identity of the tomb owner.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/25/content_1330885.htm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

On the rubbish heap

Article Published: Thursday, March 11, 2004

At trial: portraits of a marriage

Divergent openings in Blagg murder case

By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Western Slope Bureau




GRAND JUNCTION - Michael Blagg strode confidently, hand in hand with his mother, into courtroom 9 at the the Mesa County Justice Center on Wednesday morning where, over the next four hours, he would hear himself described alternately as a scheming wife killer and an adoring husband.

The start of testimony in the murder case against Blagg spun the last days of the life and murder of his wife, Jennifer, two ways. The disturbing and poignant details had Jennifer's mother in tears by the end of opening statements, in which a defense attorney laid out a theory that the murder was committed by a stranger, while the prosecution contended the assailant was Michael Blagg who stood by his wife's bedside and shot her in the face.

Prosecutor Frank Daniels, the district attorney for Mesa County, began his opening statement by quietly describing the hot, dry summer of 2001, a time he characterized as "the summer of discontent for Michael Blagg."

Blagg, who is accused of shooting Jennifer on Nov. 13, 2001, and disposing of her body in a trash bin, was on medications for anxiety and depression and was having trouble with sleeplessness, Daniels said. He described Blagg as being deep into an obsession with Internet pornography, an activity that didn't fit with his outward persona of upstanding former Navy officer and devout Christian.

Daniels told the jury that behind the facade of the "nice home in the nice neighborhood" occupied by Michael Blagg, his "lovely" 34-year-old wife, and the Blaggs' "perky" 6-year-old daughter, Abby, a bleak scenario was unfolding.

Fights between Michael and Jennifer were escalating, purportedly over Michael Blagg's use of Internet pornography, but no one knew it. Daniels said Blagg kept his family isolated. The home was shuttered. Few people visited there until the day it became a crime scene, when Blagg returned home from work and called 911 to report his wife and daughter missing and a large pool of blood on the master bed.

Abby, whose school clothes were left lying neatly by her bed and a favorite doll tucked on her pillow, has never been found and is presumed dead.

Daniels walked jurors through the evidence that culminated in Blagg being arrested in June 2002 on suspicion of murdering his wife - a crime he has steadfastly maintained he didn't commit.

Daniels described evidence the jury will see and hear over the next month showing that Blagg allegedly shot his wife, staged a burglary, wrapped her body in an old tent, loaded her into the family van and drove her to his place of business, where he put her body into a secluded trash bin.

About seven months after she disappeared, Jennifer Blagg's body was found in the Mesa County landfill by investigators in what Daniels called "a vein of trash" from Michael Blagg's workplace. Daniels showed jurors a slide of her mummified, flattened body Wednesday, a grisly image that had Blagg and some of Jennifer's family members lowering their heads and closing their eyes.

Assistant Mesa County public defender Ken Singer gave the packed courtroom much gentler images of the Blagg family smiling together during an outing a month before Jennifer's and Abby's disappearance. He described the Blaggs' marriage as being a union where "love, affection and devotion was rampant."

In his lengthy opening statement, Singer walked jurors through the evidence the defense team will use to refute the prosecution's case. He expanded on his contention that a stranger murdered Jennifer by telling the jury that a neighbor of the Blaggs' heard the voices of male strangers behind the Blaggs' home about 6 a.m. the day of her murder. He said there were scuff marks on the backyard fence and that the batteries were dead on an alarm hooked to a back door that could have been easily opened with a piece of cardboard.

He described fingerprints, blood and hair in the home and the bed, on an overturned jewelry box and in the family van that do not match those of the Blaggs. Singer said the blood in the van showed that someone might have tried to place a body in that vehicle, but then pulled it back out. He pointed out that no blood was found in the trash bin.

He said evidence will show that Michael Blagg's use of Internet pornography had actually declined before Jennifer's murder and that no one close to the Blaggs - not Jennifer's mother or closest friend - saw any signs of strife in their marriage. He showed enlarged photos of love letters between the Blaggs.

Singer said that even when Michael Blagg was in danger of dying from attempted suicide with vehicle exhaust, pills and slit wrists, he still maintained his innocence.

Singer showed jurors a jarring slide of Michael Blagg in a bathtub of blood with an open Bible and a family picture laid out on the edge.

He said Blagg whispered to a deputy who asked him to tell the truth before he died that "I did not kill my family, and I do not know where they are."

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2009445,00.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Crack house mummy

Missing woman found dead
Body discovered in Spring Garden
Thursday, March 11, 2004

By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The life of a woman missing for six months ended in a reputed Spring Garden crack house only blocks from her home.

Authorities yesterday used dental records to identify mummified remains hidden under bags of clothing in a basement on Spring Garden Avenue as Melissa Snodgrass.

She was found with the decomposed remains of her mother's dog, which Snodgrass had taken for a walk to a convenience store on Sept. 7, the day she disappeared.

The Allegheny County coroner's office said Snodgrass, who was 21 when she vanished, died from head injuries. Her death was ruled a homicide, pushing 2003's county homicide total to a record 122.

Chief Deputy Coroner Joseph Dominick said based on the evidence at the scene, the time of Snodgrass's death was "consistent with" the time she went missing.

Neither the coroner's office nor Pittsburgh police would speculate whether a weapon was used to kill Snodgrass, but Cmdr. Maurita Bryant said detectives believe she was slain inside 1004 Spring Garden Ave.

Since the body was discovered just before 5 p.m. Tuesday by two people, one of whom was identified as the homeowner by Bryant, homicide detectives have sought out people who had lived at the house, which is currently vacant.

"It appears that several different people at one time or another stayed in the house," Bryant said, adding that it was rumored to be a place where crack cocaine addicts went to get high.

Bryant could not estimate how many people stayed there, but said police have interviewed several of them. Bryant also could not say whether they resided in the house with the homeowner's knowledge or permission.

It was too early in the investigation yesterday for police to say why Snodgrass was slain or by how many attackers. Bryant said police have an eye on several people as possible suspects.

On the day she was last seen, Snodgrass left the house where she lived with her mother in the 800 block of Peralta Street to go to a market on nearby Chestnut Street. She bought a few things and left.

The next day, Snodgrass's mother, Charmaine Cefalo, called police. She told detectives that her daughter had been acting normally and did not seem out of sorts.

During the next six months, detectives in the missing persons squad tried to find Snodgrass. Her family tacked up fliers in the neighborhood. Tips came in, but no sightings. They talked to men who were said to have dated Snodgrass. Police even checked with the city pound and animal shelters for the family's chihuahua/terrier mix named Baby.

"Everything seemed odd about it," missing persons Sgt. Amanda Aldridge recalled. "She didn't take anything personal with her, except for the dog."

Snodgrass did have her cell phone, but no one answered it after Sept. 7. Police were aware of suspicions that Snodgrass popped pills, Aldridge said. And there was a rumor -- never pinned down -- that either Snodgrass owed someone money, or she was holding money for someone else who was a debtor.

Just a month after Snodgrass disappeared, police were called to the house where she was eventually found. On Oct. 10, an officer from the North Side station was dispatched to the home, Bryant said. She did not know the nature of the call.

"The officer went on the scene, talked to somebody who identified himself as the owner of the house. They looked through the house," Bryant said. "In the officer's assessment, things checked out OK."

Bryant declined to identify the officer. She did not know if the homeowner was the same person who discovered Snodgrass's body.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04071/284130.stm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Smell led cop to 'missing' mom

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Kimball Perry
Post staff reporter

When Hamilton County Sheriff's Detective Ken Schweinefus arrived at Frederick Engelhardt's house in May 2003 to question him about his missing mother, the officer got an unmistakable clue that convinced him that Diane Engelhardt wasn't missing.
"Fred Engelhardt was not there, but something was there that (the detective) recognized and disturbed him greatly -- it was the smell of human remains," Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said Wednesday at Engelhardt's murder trial.

When Schweinefus went looking for Fred Engelhardt, Diane Engelhardt hadn't been seen in 10 months.

When Fred Engelhardt didn't return Schweinefus' call that day, the detective returned to Engelhardt's Colerain Township home to confront the man his family called "Fritz" or Fritzy."

Until then, Engelhardt had told people his mother -- who relatives said controlled her son and berated him severely and constantly -- had moved to Las Vegas to undergo cancer treatment or already had died from cancer.

"Officer Schweinefus looked him in the eye and (said), 'You and I know she's not alive, and she's not in Las Vegas,'" Piepmeier said, quoting the officer. "'You and I know she's dead, and she's here on this property.'"

Piepmeier said Engelhardt lowered his head and said: '"You're right. She's here.'"

Police discovered the mummified body of Mrs. Engelhardt in the dry cistern on her Pippin Road property as well as, prosecutors contend, evidence that her son should be convicted of murder and sent to prison for life.

But Engelhardt's attorney, Tim Cutcher, said what that evidence didn't show was the decades of cruelty and overbearing attention Diane Engelhardt imposed on her only child.

It didn't show, Cutcher added Wednesday in the trial's last day, that she had an affair that resulted in her husband hanging himself in their home or the trauma young Fred suffered when he discovered the body. He was 9 at the time, but repressed that memory until his 20s.

His mother had told him that her husband had died of a heart attack.

"After I told Fritzy about his father, the way he died, (my relationship with Diane) kind of went downhill after that," Dale Daniels, Mrs. Engelhardt's brother, testified Wednesday.

Cutcher insists Engelhardt, 32, killed his mother after they argued, first about her hitting a retarded aunt living with them, then over her affair and its impact on his father's death.

Engelhardt told police she attacked him with a hammer, but he took it away from her and beat her to death with it.

That, assistant prosecutor Karl Kadon suggested to Common Pleas Court Judge Norbert Nadel, proved Engelhardt should be convicted of murder because his acts were purposeful.

Whatever Mrs. Engelhardt did to her son, was it "sufficient to justify hitting her in the back of the head with a claw hammer to the point where the hammer ends up sticking in the back of her head, wrapping (her body) up and putting it in a well for a year?" Kadon asked.

Engelhardt killed his mother July 29, 2002. Her body was discovered May 22, 2003.

Piepmeier said the evidence could show Engelhardt attacked his mother from behind.

"This is not a fight with his mother," he said. "It was a cold-blooded killing."

Cutcher, though, insisted that Engelhardt was "a creation of his environment and of his mother. Everyone who knew this woman -- said she kept him too close. She controlled him. She was the violent one, not Fritzy Engelhardt."

Cutcher wants Nadel, who is hearing the case without a jury, to find Engelhardt guilty of voluntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Nadel will make a decision on the case in about 10 days.




Publication Date: 01-29-2004

http://www.cincypost.com/2004/01/29/fritz012904.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Woman convicted of murdering her three infants gets 25 years to life

Tuesday, January 27, 2004 Posted: 1917 GMT ( 3:17 AM HKT)



MONTICELLO, New York (AP) -- A woman convicted of killing three of her newborn children in the 1980s was sentenced to 25 years to life Tuesday, less than a year after their mummified remains were found in a storage shed in Arizona.

Dianne Odell, 50, was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder in December. She told Judge Frank LaBuda on Tuesday that she did not kill the children and cried as she was led out of the courtroom.

"I hope one day that the truth will set me free," she said.

The three infants died shortly after their births at Odell's home in Kauneonga Lake, about 80 miles north of New York City.

Authorities say Odell then carried the remains with her for a decade or more, finally leaving them in boxes in a rented storage shed in Safford, Arizona. She was arrested last May after the remains were discovered.

LaBuda sentenced Odell to a minimum of 15 years to life for the first baby, 20 years to life for the second and 25 to life for the third. She will serve the sentences concurrently.

Three of Odell's eight surviving children attended the sentencing with her common-law husband, Robert Sauerstein.

"I'm not unmoved by the quality of your children and the letters of your children asking for mercy," LaBuda said. "This sentence is not punishment and retribution, but it affirms the respect for life that we Americans have."

But Sauerstein said the judge "sentenced the whole family."

The defense said she delivered the babies without medical help at home because she was scared to tell her mother she was pregnant, arguing they died naturally. But a prosecution expert testified that they were asphyxiated and showed no congenital defects or heart abnormalities.

Odell told police she passed out during delivery and awoke to find the babies dead. She said one baby had a towel partially in its mouth, and another was found under her thigh.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/27/infant.remains.ap/

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Mummified body found at highway

PLEASANTON — A state highway employee cutting weeds stumbled upon a mummified man's body Monday near the intersection of Interstate 37 and Texas 97, about three miles west of Pleasanton.

The unidentified body was sent to the Bexar County medical examiner's office for an autopsy, said Chief Deputy David Soward of the Atascosa County Sheriff's Department.

"There were no visible signs of foul play that my investigators could find," Soward said.

He said a Texas Department of Transportation worker called the Sheriff's Department at about 10:30 a.m. Monday after finding the body halfway in a concrete culvert on the southbound entrance ramp to Interstate 37.

Soward said the recent cold temperatures helped preserve the man's body, keeping much of it from decomposing.

"Right now, we're estimating that the body may have been there for two months," he said.

Soward said investigators found personal belongings, like a ring and a watch, on the man's body, but no identification cards.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/1112889.html

Body is ID'd as man missing since October
01-20-2004

Jeorge Zarazua

JOURDANTON — The mummified body of a man found last week east of Pleasanton in a culvert near Interstate 37 and Texas 97 has been identified as 64-year-old Herman Daniel Williams of San Antonio.

Williams had been missing since Oct. 20, said Chief Deputy David Soward of the Atascosa County Sheriff's Department.

"We still don't know the cause of death," Soward said Monday. "The autopsy didn't show any signs of trauma on the body."

Soward said the medical examiner's office is waiting for toxicology results before completing its autopsy report.

Williams was last seen leaving Downtown Baptist Hospital, said daughter Pearly Bennard, 44, of Charleston, N.C.

"He was really sick," Bennard said, adding that her father had bone cancer and recently had "started talking out of his head."

"How he got out there, I don't know," she said. "It's a mystery to me, too."

The Heidi Search Center distributed fliers in San Antonio last month in an effort to locate Williams, but search groups were never deployed, said Matt Schwartz, a spokesman for the organization.

A state employee cutting weeds at the highway intersection Jan. 12 stumbled upon Williams' body, which Soward described as mummified, partially preserved by cold temperatures.

Williams, who was divorced, lived alone on Houston Street in San Antonio. Bennard said she had asked him to move with her to North Carolina, but he refused.

"He's a grown man, and I let him do that," she said. "Now I wish I would have gone down there and tied him up and brought him up here."

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/1116158.html

 

[Kondoru]

URUMQI, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- A farmer in Turpan in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, recently found a well-preserved ancient tomb on his farm.

The farmer, Halik, discovered the tomb when he was working in the field. Archaeologists said it could date back to the early years of the 20th century.

....reminds me of those antiques that are only a few years old....

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

A couple of missing reports due to the LA Times' login/registration being a bit jiggered but this should give a good overview:

[edit: I have managed to get in for some inexplicable reason:

April 6, 2004


Corpse Discovered in Barrel; No ID Yet

Decayed body was found Friday at the home of a Yucca Valley couple killed in a fire March 15.


By Hugo Martín, Times Staff Writer


Three days after finding a decomposed corpse in the garage of an elderly Yucca Valley couple, San Bernardino County authorities said the body is so decayed they cannot yet determine its age or even its gender.

A preliminary autopsy Monday was unable to determine the identity or cause of death of the person whose body was discovered in a 55-gallon barrel sealed inside a wooden crate in the garage of the couple, who died in a fire last month, authorities said.

Robert H. Shaw, lead supervising deputy coroner for San Bernardino County, said he hoped tests performed today and Wednesday would help identify the corpse. "For now, it is an unidentified 'Doe,' " he said.

The body was in the garage of Virginia Beiser, 85, and Robert Adams, 84, who died March 15 in a house fire that investigators determined was ignited by a cigarette Beiser was smoking in bed. Legal aides and a cleanup crew hired by an attorney representing Beiser's estate found the crate while going through the couple's possessions Friday afternoon.

The first person to see the body was Robyn Berry, a secretary for the law offices of Ira N. Tuck, the attorney for Beiser's estate. She said the discovery was made as she, a paralegal and three other workers were looking through the home, documenting everything before selling the property.

"At first I didn't believe it was a body," she said Monday. "It was very macabre."

The crate that contained the cardboard barrel was extremely sturdy and difficult to open, Berry said. But the barrel, in which the body was curled in a fetal position, was disintegrating and opened easily, she said.

Shaw said the body was intact but "mummified." He said the coroner's office had requested that a forensic anthropologist and a dentist examine the body today and Wednesday, in hopes of determining the identity through fingerprints and dental X-rays.

Tuck said he knew very little about Beiser except that she was the widow of an ophthalmologist. He said he had yet to find any relatives and didn't know what relationship Beiser had with Adams, except that he was listed as the first executor of her estate.

Their high-desert home is a small stucco structure on a dirt road, surrounded by cactuses, rocks and Joshua trees. Although she and Adams had lived there at least five years, neighbors said they knew almost nothing about them. Several neighbors said Beiser rarely left home and was visited regularly by a private caregiver.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-yucca6apr06,1,898132.story?coll=la-news-state

Thats the important one the other article seems to be a rehash of it and some of the other news. ]

Dead pair's 'secret' a body

YUCCA VALLEY: Before perishing in a fire, a man hints of a mystery hidden in the garage.


11:31 PM PDT on Tuesday, April 6, 2004



By RICHARD BROOKS / The Press-Enterprise

Long before an elderly Yucca Valley couple died in a house fire, caretaker Lisa McMahill knew that a wooden box in their garage contained a dark secret.

But she says she had no idea that the secret was a mummified human body, whose identity remains a mystery

"Bob had told me there was something incriminating in the box that would put a lot of people away," McMahill said Tuesday of the grisly legacy of retired tax preparer Robert Adams, 84, and Virginia Beiser, 85. "I took it to mean paperwork. You think, 'Taxman? Paperwork.' And I'm not one to pry."

The prying began Friday, when McMahill accompanied a clean-up crew and two law-firm staffers to the home of Beiser and Adams, who died March 15 in their charred living room.

The legal team wanted to catalog the contents of the house for Yucca Valley attorney Ira N. Tuck, who is handling Beiser's estate. The team hired McMahill to guide them, she said, because her caretaker duties had included handling the couple's financial affairs.

The cataloging assignment seemed routine. Arson investigators already had concluded that the fire was accidental. Beiser apparently had been smoking in bed.

Her body was found in the hospital-style bed to which she had been confined for years and where she had smoked one to two packs of cigarettes a day. Adams' body was slumped in a wheelchair he had used since he had a stroke five years ago.

McMahill told the people with whom she was working at the house about the six-foot by three-foot plywood-sided box that they then pried open, looking for paperwork. Inside was a cardboard barrel. Inside the barrel was the body.

"It was pretty shocking," McMahill said. "I saw a hand. We (also) knew it was a body by the smell - something I'll never forget."

On Tuesday, sheriff's and coroner's officials said they were just beginning the identification process.

A forensic anthropologist working on behalf of the San Bernardino County Coroner's office began preliminary work to identify the remains through fingerprints and a skull-and-skeletal exam. That work is expected to continue today and a dental exam is scheduled, a coroner's spokesman said.

"It's a complete set of remains, but we have no idea who it might be," said sheriff's spokesman Chip Patterson.

It can't be Beiser's former husband, said McMahill, who identified that person as Rudolf Beiser. He died of cancer in a nursing home more than 10 years ago and his wife kept his cremated ashes in an urn, McMahill said.

What became of Adams' former wife?

"That's the question," said McMahill. "He didn't talk much about her. She divorced him. And that's all I know about it."

The body

Seventy miles east of Yucca Valley, coroner's officials in San Bernardino started a four-step process designed to identify the leathery remains that have so badly decomposed that even an autopsy couldn't establish the age or gender.

"We're going to attempt rehydration of the fingers," said Rocky Shaw, San Bernardino County lead supervising deputy coroner.

Soaking should make them pliable, and pliable fingers can yield fingerprints.

The other methods rely on medical examinations and a comparison of the results with the medical records of possible victims.

By 5 p.m. Tuesday, a forensic anthropologist had begun the skull-and-skeleton examination for defects, including fractures and surgical pins or other metal appliances.

Her preliminary findings were not available.

Forensic exams often can tell a person's height, gender, approximate age and date of death and probable race, Shaw said.

Today, the odontologist is tentatively set to begin the dental exam.

"Failing that, we're dealing with the possibility of (identification by) DNA," Shaw said.

"If there's someone (sheriff's investigators) are presenting as a possible missing person - someone who had rented or lived in the house - we would backtrack and see if that would yield a match."

But there's no comprehensive DNA databank , Shaw said, so success isn't guaranteed.

The fire victims

"They were boyfriend and girlfriend. They really loved each other dearly," McMahill said of the fire victims, whom she knew for about 20 years.

Virginia and Robert, as she calls them, met about 15 years ago when Virginia worked for Robert at his tax preparation business, McMahill said.

"Her husband was sick. He was in a nursing home. And she needed something to occupy her time," said McMahill.

A couple of years later, Virginia's husband died, and she began seeing Bob socially.

"They kept separate homes for years," said McMahill. "But she ended up moving in with him when he had a stroke about five years ago."

It was about that time that Bob told McMahill about the box.

"But he told me I would never know (its secret) until he died," McMahill said. "I didn't want to know. It wasn't my business. I'm not nosey, and he trusted me.

"I had no idea there was a body in there."

http://www.pe.com/localnews/desertpass/stories/PE_News_Local_body07.a0bd1.html

Body in box remains a mystery

YUCCA VALLEY: The description might fit a fire victim's ex-wife, saysa former caretaker.


01:09 AM PDT on Thursday, April 8, 2004



By RICHARD BROOKS / The Press-Enterprise

SAN BERNARDINO - The mystery of the body in the box deepened Wednesday when a forensic exam showed only that the mummified remains are that of a short, white woman, between 42 and 71, who'd had at least one pregnancy.

"It helps to rule out ... that it might be a teenager or a very young girl," said San Bernardino County Lead Supervising Deputy Coroner Rocky Shaw.

The woman was between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 6 inches tall. Shaw declined to discuss what injuries may have been discovered and said the approximate date of her death remains unknown.

Further tests are scheduled in hopes of identifying the remains found Friday in the home of an elderly Yucca Valley couple who died March 15 in an accidental house fire.

"Anything's possible at this point," sheriff's spokesman Chip Patterson said. "We don't have enough information to focus on any individuals."

However, the couple's caretaker for the past five years said that the general description of the body matches the ex-wife of one of the fire victims, 84-year-old Robert Adams, who lived in the house owned by the other fire victim, 85-year-old Virginia Beiser.

Lisa McMahill said that the box was in the garage throughout her time as caretaker and that Adams and his ex-wife, Fran, had been divorced roughly 30 years.

McMahill was present when the remains were discovered. She accompanied a cleanup crew and two law-firm staffers who were cataloging the contents of the house for Yucca Valley attorney Ira N. Tuck, who is handling Beiser's estate.

Also inside the box, McMahill said, were a crucifix, a Bible, a pocketknife and one of Fran Adams' business cards.

Robert Adams' ex-wife was about 5 feet 2 or 3 inches tall, McMahill said, recalling a wedding picture she once saw of the couple.

Before their divorce, McMahill said, the Adamses had a daughter, Annaette Adams of Sparks, Nev., who the coroner's spokesman said his office hasn't been able to locate.

"I met her twice," said McMahill, who estimated that the most recent encounter was eight or nine months ago. "She decided to come pay him a visit for the day.

"She wrote a card to him in the beginning of March."

Next of kin have not been found for either fire victim, Patterson said.

The lawyer for Beiser's estate shed some light on her background, but few details.

"My recollection is that she said she had no relatives that she knew of," said Tuck.

He estimated the estate's value at a "few hundred thousand (dollars)," which he said is destined to establish college scholarships for aspiring eye doctors, in memory of her former husband, Tuck said.

Adams was supposed to be executor of the will, Tuck said. But since Adams also is dead, Tuck said the responsibility now falls to him.

The grisly discovery in the garage isn't likely to affect the status of the will, Tuck said.

But it has certainly riveted the attention of many residents of the small Morongo Valley town - including Tuck's staff.

"Everybody in the office was flabbergasted," he said.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_body08.a0f8a.html

Mummified Body May Be Long-Missing Calif. Woman

Thu Apr 8, 2004 08:28 PM ET


By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A mummified body found at the home of a retired San Diego accountant and his companion after a fire that killed them both could be the man's wife, who has been missing for 28 years, police said on Thursday.

Coroner's investigators were examining the remains -- which were found last week inside a cardboard drum and a wooden crate -- to determine if they belonged to 50-year-old Frances Adams, who was last seen in November of 1975.

"It probably is Mrs. Adams but we don't know that yet," said Robin Haynal, a San Bernardino County Sheriff's spokeswoman. "All we know right now is that it's a white woman who was between the ages of 42 and 70."

She said the death was being investigated by homicide detectives.

A cleaning crew discovered the body after a fire at the home of Robert Adams in the high desert town of Yucca Valley, east of San Diego, killed him and Virginia Beiser, who were both in their 80s, Haynal said.

Police who called Robert Adams' daughter to notify her of her father's death learned that Frances Adams had been missing for more than a quarter century, though they could find no report of her disappearance.

Haynal said coroner's investigators would conduct an autopsy to identify the woman and cause of death.

The San Bernardino Sun newspaper reported on its Web site that police found a Bible, small cross and a business card belonging to Frances Adams inside the crate, which was nailed shut around the crumbling cardboard drum.

A longtime friend of Robert Adams and Beiser, Lisa McMahill, said Beiser told her in 1998 that there was "incriminating evidence" in the crate, the Sun reported.

The paper said McMahill thought Beiser, who was bedridden at the time of her death, was referring to tax documents. Beiser worked as a secretary for Adams, the paper said, until they became a couple about six years ago.

The Sun reported that police believe the fire was started by Beiser's cigarette, which had been left burning in bed. Adams had been confined to a wheelchair since suffering a stroke about six years ago.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4791201

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Re: On the rubbish heap

Follow up on this case:

Article Published: Thursday, March 11, 2004

At trial: portraits of a marriage

Divergent openings in Blagg murder case

By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Western Slope Bureau


..........

About seven months after she disappeared, Jennifer Blagg's body was found in the Mesa County landfill by investigators in what Daniels called "a vein of trash" from Michael Blagg's workplace. Daniels showed jurors a slide of her mummified, flattened body Wednesday, a grisly image that had Blagg and some of Jennifer's family members lowering their heads and closing their eyes.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2009445,00.html

It a pretty nasty case - I think the DA summed it up best.

Blagg sentenced to life

Jury finds him guilty of first-degree murder in slaying of his wife

By Joe Garner And Ellen Miller, Rocky Mountain News
April 17, 2004

GRAND JUNCTION Michael Blagg was sentenced Friday to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of murdering his wife, Jennifer, whose mummified body was unearthed in the Mesa County landfill seven months after she disappeared.

"As far as I'm concerned, he's a narcissistic pig," said Mesa County District Attorney Frank Daniels, who prosecuted the high-profile case.

Daniels portrayed Blagg, 41, as a manipulative, sexually abusive husband drunk with egotism, veiled by the public facade of a loving, Christian husband and father.

After the sentencing, Blagg leaned back toward his mother, Elizabeth Blagg, and his sister, Clare Rochester, but he was not allowed to embrace his family. Instead, deputies hurried him from the courtroom.

"I love you, sweetheart," Elizabeth Blagg yelled to her son.

"I love you," he mouthed as the courtroom door shut.

Blagg sat as if praying before the verdict was read. Then he slowly shook his head in denial, his eyes shut, as he was pronounced guilty on the four charges against him.

In addition to first-degree murder, which carries a life sentence without parole, he was found guilty of abusing his wife's corpse. He also was convicted on two lesser charges of theft from his employer and theft by filing a ,000 insurance claim for the loss of jewelry and clothing that belonged to Jennifer and their 6-year-old daughter, Abby.

The lively little girl, who disappeared along with her mother from their comfortable family home on Nov. 13, 2001, is still missing and presumed dead.

A member of the citizens' group who helped hunt for the mother and daughter when they went missing challenged Blagg later Friday to reveal where he put Abby.

Blagg spoke only once before Mesa County District Judge David Bottger sentenced him. "I am innocent of these charges, and I have nothing more to say," he said.

Throughout the trial, Daniels contended that Blagg, a former Navy helicopter pilot, shot his sleeping wife once in the face and disposed of her remains in a trash bin at the manufacturing plant where he was a manager. The trash bin was emptied into the landfill the next day.

Daniels presented evidence that Blagg was addicted to pornographic Web sites and urged his wife to watch with him after health problems made sexual relations painful for her.

Defense counsel David Eisner countered that Blagg, who wore his gold wedding band to trial, was indeed the grieving husband and parent who went on national TV tearfully pleading for the return of his wife and child. Eisner contended they were the victims of kidnappers who broke into the home after Blagg left for work.

Jurors said they were swayed by issues of Blagg's character, but not necessarily by his use of pornography.

"Being a Christian woman, I don't believe he was Christian," said Andrea Taylor, one of four jurors who held a news conference Friday afternoon.

The three female jurors at the news conference said Blagg made deliberate eye contact with them. They thought he tried to express despair and regret.

"I felt his sincerity was tested as soon as I made eye contact with him," Taylor said. "He tried too hard to come on as sincere, and he did not."

Mary Gonzales said she turned away when Blagg, immaculately dressed in coat and tie for every day of the trial, smiled at her.

The four jurors who went public said all 12 leaned toward a guilty verdict from the start of deliberations midday Thursday, but some initially advocated the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

Todd Hoyt, the only male juror among the four at the news conference, said the jury grasped one fact as pivotal: The family had only two sets of keys to their minivan, which was used to transport Jennifer's body from the home. One set was later found under her purse and Michael Blagg had the other set on his key ring.

Sheriff's investigator Steve King, one of the officers who dug through the putrid landfill in June heat, said officers quickly realized Blagg thought he was shrewder than the detectives and analysts on the case.

"The flaw in his planning was that he didn't have any experience in knowing what a true kidnap-burglary scene should look like," King said. "On an individual basis, maybe he was smarter than I am, but he wasn't smarter than all of us together."

Investigators followed many leads, but, over time, Blagg offered "misinformation and statements that just didn't fit," which led authorities back to him as the prime suspect, King said.

"I think Grand Junction is a safer place without Michael Blagg, and heaven is a better place with Jennifer and Abby," the investigator said.

King said he was surprised that the jury went through the catalog of evidence so quickly to come up with a verdict.

Defense attorney Eisner, who had criticized the prosecution as "overzealous" in charging Michael Blagg simply because he was an obvious suspect, sought out investigator King in the press of people outside the courtroom to shake hands.

"A little bit of me is hurt, and I'll always carry it with me," said Eisner, who had invested 2 ½ years in preparing Blagg's defense.

District Attorney Daniels, the father of four daughters, said he worked on the case every day of this year, indicating that it had become a personal mission. He is term-limited this year, so he can't seek re-election.

Elizabeth Blagg declared her son's innocence as she left the courtroom, but she and other family members declined further comment.

Many Grand Junction residents, who first rallied to help Michael Blagg search for his missing wife and daughter, felt, in the end, that he had duped them.

"If that guy's a man, he'll tell us where he put Abby," said Connie Flukey, spokeswoman for a community search that brought out 2,200 volunteers to comb the desert and mesas around the western Colorado city. "Not what he did with her, but where he put her."

After a trial that mixed piety and pornography, Jennifer's family said they found solace in the verdict, but suffered a loss as well.

"God has been with us through the trial, and I hope he has been with the Blagg family, too," said Marilyn Conway, Jennifer's mother. "We've lost a son-in-law, too."

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2815806,00.html

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Mummified body found near I-10

By Lois Gormley
The Desert Sun
May 12th, 2004

PALM SPRINGS -- A body was discovered Tuesday morning in a patch of tamarisk trees on the south of Interstate 10 in Palm Springs.

Police said the body was found in an area that appears to be a transient camp in the vicinity of the railroad tracks at Gene Autry Trail near I-10.

Palm Springs Police Sgt. Dennis Graham said officers were still on the scene at 4:15 p.m. but the Riverside County Coroner’s office had removed the body from the area at 3 p.m.

No information was available Tuesday evening on the identity, age or sex of the deceased person.

The body was discovered at 9:06 a.m. near a frontage road on the south side of I-10, Graham said.

It was unknown when the autopsy would be performed to determine the cause of death.

No further information on the investigation was immediately available.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Palm Springs Police Department at 323-8115.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/20040512010852.shtml

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Another well-preserved body like Mallory's (I wonder how many there must be lying around in a natural chiller?):

Climber dead 35 years is found on McKinley



ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Climbers poking around a high-elevation camp on Mount McKinley discovered a human foot sticking out of the snow. Rangers dug out the frozen corpse of a man who died 35 years ago.

Ranger Darryl Miller said authorities believe the body is that of Gary Cole of Cody, Wyo., who died of acute mountain sickness June 19, 1969.

The grim discovery was made Friday, said Kris Fister, a Denali National Park spokeswoman. While looking for supplies at a storage area at the campsite, climbers noticed what looked like climbing gear in the snow, Fister said.

A closer look revealed it was a foot in a sock.

At that elevation, the mountain is perpetually frozen, and the man's body was fairly well preserved, Miller said.

Cole was one of six climbers who set out to conquer the 20,320-foot summit. He fell ill and was left at a base camp at 17,200 feet.

After the other climbers returned from the mountaintop Cole died, and, too exhausted to carry him out, they left his body behind.

Of 93 people who have died on Mount McKinley since 1932, the bodies of 35 are still on the mountain, Park Service records show.

After a positive identification, state troopers will try to locate family members, he said.

http://166.70.44.66/2004/Jul/07012004/nation_w/180225.asp

Climber's remains found on McKinley

ID: Officials think man died in 1969.


By PETER PORCO
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: June 30, 2004)

The body of a man who died high on Mount McKinley decades ago was discovered by climbers over the weekend after it began to emerge from the snow, the National Park Service said Tuesday.

The Park Service has not identified the body but has narrowed the possibilities and believes the most likely is a 32-year-old Wyoming man who died of acute mountain sickness in 1969, the agency said.

"We're pretty sure we know who it is, but we don't know for certain," Daryl Miller, the South District ranger for Denali National Park, said from his office in Talkeetna.

The body was being lowered Tuesday from the 17,200-foot high camp on the mountain's West Buttress route, where it was found, to the 14,200-foot basin, Miller said.

As soon as weather allows, it will be flown to Talkeetna and turned over to Alaska State Troopers, he said. That was not likely to happen before today.

The state medical examiner has asked for the body, and the Park Service was eager to have an official confirmation of the man's identity, Miller said.

Once the body is identified, troopers will try to locate members of his family.

Of the 93 people who have died on McKinley since 1932 -- the last one an American killed Sunday by falling rocks -- the bodies of 35 remain on the mountain, according to Park Service records.

The whereabouts of many of the 35 are a mystery. Others were known to have fallen into specific crevasses or on slopes where they could not be recovered.

In several cases, the climbers' bodies were deliberately buried in crevasses or in snow graves dug high on the 20,320-foot peak because it was too dangerous to bring them down.

Climbers discovered the man's body Friday, said Kris Fister, a Denali Park spokeswoman. While poking around for supplies in a well-used cache at the camp, they noticed what looked like climbing gear in the snow 20 feet away, Fister said.

Miller said the climbers thought the material was evidence of another cache and were going to cover it with snow until they saw it was a foot clothed in a sock.

The body was dug out by park rangers. The mountain at 17,000 feet is perpetually frozen, and the man's body is fairly well preserved, Miller said. No identification was found, but the man's clothes had not yet been searched, he said.

The body is not that of Naomi Uemura, the renowned Japanese adventurer who vanished on a solo climb in February 1984, Miller said.

Uemera was believed to have summitted, becoming the first to reach the top alone in winter, but he disappeared on the way down, apparently before reaching the high camp where his diary and other belongings were found. No one has ever seen his body.

According to Denali Park records, of the 35 climbers' bodies on the peak, the only one known to have been buried in the area of Friday's discovery was Gary Cole, of Cody, Wyo., who died June 19, 1969.

Rumors persist that a small plane crashed on the peak in 1960 and the pilot and passenger were buried adjacent to the high camp. The account of the crash could not be confirmed Tuesday.

One of Cole's partners on the climb of 35 years ago, when told where the body was found, said, "That's him."

"It sounds like the wind just eroded the snow off the top of it," said Walter Vennum of Sebastopol, Calif. Vennum, a 63-year-old geology professor and active mountaineer, was 28 in 1969.

"I'll never forget that trip, for obvious reasons," he said.

Vennum lost contact with the other four members of the party soon after a memorial for Cole a year after his death.

In phone interviews Tuesday, Vennum and a second member of the group, Henry Noldan, told of how Cole, an engineer, succumbed quickly to a buildup of fluid in the lungs and had to be left on the mountain.

"He had passed away and we had left him in a cave that was at 17,200 feet, and some of the other climbers went back up and buried him," said Noldan, a 74-year-old retired federal worker living in Wilmington, N.C.

Days earlier, the party left the 14,200-foot basin for the upper camp intending to return after caching supplies, Vennum said. But a storm struck, and they were forced to stay in an ice cave at 17,200 feet.

"When the storm broke the next day, we went for the summit," Vennum said. But Cole was vomiting and decided to stay back. A friend of his, another climber from Wyoming, stayed in the cave with him.

The others went to the summit but had problems on the way down, including bad weather and signs of cerebral edema -- fluid on the brain -- in Vennum, he said. They did not return to the high camp until about 9 a.m. the next day, 24 hours later.

They collapsed and slept for about six hours, Vennum said. On waking, they found Cole unconscious and heard gurgling in his lungs. The weather was foul, but they got out a plea for help.

An Army helicopter from Fort Richardson with a surgeon aboard tried but failed to reach the team on June 18, according to a newspaper account.

Meanwhile, the men had found an oxygen bottle at what was known as the medical cache and were able to revive Cole for a time, Vennum said.

"But the oxygen ran out, and that was the end of him," he said.

The helicopter returned June 19. When its crew learned Cole had died, they returned without trying to land, Vennum said.

"We were all so exhausted, we couldn't take him down the mountain," Noldan said. The five climbers descended to 14,200 feet, leaving Cole in the ice cave.

Climbing technology and techniques would allow a recovery from high camp today, but not 35 years ago, Miller said.

Cole was married and had two young children, according to his former partners. His wife was contacted by the Park Service during the ordeal. She said her husband would not want to be taken down from the mountain if it would endanger others, according to Henry's wife, Helena Noldan.

So other climbers at 14,200 feet returned to the high camp and buried him.

Attempts Tuesday to learn what has happened to Cole's wife and children over the years were unsuccessful.

http://www.adn.com/front/story/5248506p-5183846c.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Hmmmmmmm I would have thought this would have been mentioned when he was found but.......

Frozen body to reveal old American mysteries

WILLIAM TINNING
June 23 2004



HIS body was entombed under the ice for almost 700 years.
Now, some of the mysteries of ancient civilisation in North America are about to be revealed when scientists unveil some of the details of the last journey of the only well preserved ancient human body ever recovered in the region.

Hunters discovered the frozen body of Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi (Long Ago Person Found) in August 1999 while crossing a glacier high in the mountains of north-west British Columbia, Canada, about 60 miles from southern Alaska.

The body, which had become partly exposed as the glacier melted, was dressed in a cloak made from the pelts of Arctic ground squirrels.

The hunter's apparent belongings – including a walking stick, a wooden spear, a bone knife, a leather pouch containing edible leaves and the remains of a fish, and a broad-rimmed hat of surprisingly fine weave – were scattered nearby.

Experts initially believed the design of the tools indicated that the body was that of an aboriginal hunter who lived in so-called pre-contact times, before a group of Russian traders became the first outsiders to visit the region 250 years ago.

It has since been established that the man was probably aged about 20 and that he probably lived as much as 550 to 660 years ago.

At the time the hunter was found there was speculation that he had fallen, wedged upright in a crevasse.

The body was dug out and packed in blocks of ice cut from the glacier to preserve it during a flight by helicopter to cold storage in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.

A team of scientists from both sides of the Atlantic became involved in discovering the body's secrets.

It is now led by Professor James Dickson, of the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, who is also involved in research of an "iceman" found in the Italian side of the Alps in 1991 by two German climbers. The iceman, nicknamed Otzi, is believed to have drawn his last breath some 5200 years ago.
Professor Dickson said an examination of the North American man's DNA, clothes and stomach contents revealed that he moved inland from the coast shortly before his death.

Tests on his cloak revealed that it contained the remains of two plants normally found in coastal areas.

But they showed the man had not eaten his usual diet of seafood in the last few months before his death.

A North American Indian tribe – known as the Champagne and Aishihik – has claimed Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi as its own. Professor Dickson said the tribe had been kept informed of the research as it progressed.

He said a six-page report – The Holocene – detailing the results of the research to date would be published today.

Professor Dickson said: "This is the first ancient body that has been melted out of anywhere in the Americas. It is the first time that such work has been done in the area.

"On the basis of the carbon dating on his clothing there is no doubt he lived about 550 years ago."

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/18661.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Mummified body may have lain in bed for years, police say

Last Updated Thu, 26 Aug 2004 22:21:58 EDT

WINNIPEG - Police have found the mummified remains of a Winnipeg man in bed in his condominium, where he may have lain unnoticed for up to two years.

Officers climbed through a window and found Jim Sulkers' body on Wednesday, after relatives from out of town asked the force to check on him, said Const. Shelly Glover.

The medical examiner said Sulkers, a 53-year-old with multiple sclerosis, died of natural causes.

The gruesome discovery shocked his neighbours in the condo complex where he had lived since the mid-1980s.

"Nobody has smelled anything, but you know we have a good ventilation system," said Bertha Claeys, who lives down the hall. "He was a nice man, that's all I could tell from what we knew."

The neighbours, who described him as a friendly loner, said they noticed Sulkers' absence but never suspected something like this.

"The only thing everybody thought was he was away for the winter, that was the first winter," said Sam Shuster, who lives in an adjoining apartment. "Then he was gone the second winter."

The exact date of death couldn't be determined, but a newspaper in the man's room was dated November 2002, police said.

Sulkers had been living on a disability pension, with his condo fees and other expenses deducted automatically from his bank account.

The first clue that something was amiss came when his pension cheques were cut off and his former employer began making inquiries.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/08/26/mummy_winnipeg040826.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Another report on this:

Mummified Man Goes Unnoticed for Two Years

Mon Aug 30,10:18 AM ET


WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A reclusive Canadian man, who neighbors thought may have gone traveling, was found mummified in his bed, almost two years after he died, Manitoba's chief medical examiner says.


Winnipeg police found the body of 52-year-old Jim Sulkers preserved in his tidy apartment after a relative phoned police to ask them to check on him.

Sulkers, who had multiple sclerosis, preferred to be left alone. His bill payments and pension deposits were handled automatically.

"It was a very well-kept second floor condominium, neat and clean, with everything in its place, and there was a body of a man on the bed, covered in a sheet, like he was sleeping, except that the body was mummified," said Thambirajah Balachandra, who investigates deaths in the province.

A newspaper dated Nov. 21, 2002, was in the apartment in an upscale Winnipeg neighborhood. Balachandra said the man died of natural causes.

"In this case, apparently this man was very reclusive. He kept to himself, he lived alone, and he didn't have contact with anybody," Balachandra said Friday.

The hot, dry and clean environment meant the body did not decompose, but rather dried up, he said.

Neighbors told local newspapers they thought the man had traveled south to escape Winnipeg's long, cold winters, and did not notice anything wrong.

Source

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

A sad tale:

Mummified newborn's ID will stay a mystery

Baby was discovered in locked trunk from Searle estate sale

October 1, 2004

By DAVE HANEY

of the Journal Star

PEORIA - The mystery and identity of a mummified baby discovered in a foot locker three years ago will remain a mystery.

"The date and place the baby was born, the father and mother are all unknown," Peoria County Coroner Dan Heinz said Thursday at an inquest into the baby's death. "The cause of death cannot be determined."

No new clues have surfaced since the mummified newborn, dubbed "Baby Jane Doe," was found Aug. 21, 2001, in a locked trunk after an estate sale of the 84-year-old William Searle of Kickapoo.

"Three years has been long enough," Heinz said. "I figured I would give the family - the family who we suspected may be related to the baby - the opportunity to provide DNA, so they could bury her to their wishes, but they didn't want to (provide the DNA)."

Without any DNA to compare with the baby, authorities have no way of determining who the child may have belonged to.

The remains were found by two men who purchased an old foot locker at the sale. The men, Brad and Greg Gilles, both former neighbors of Searle, were

hoping to find old engine parts or even money in the locked trunk.

"They thought they were getting a good deal; they paid $1," said Peoria County sheriff's Detective Jim Hajnal.

To their shock, the brothers found the mummified remains of a newborn white girl with reddish-blond hair and the umbilical cord still attached. Her body was hidden in a suitcase inside the trunk.

Hajnal said a tag on the trunk read the name "William Vogt," a son of Berneice Searle who married William Searle in 1961. Berneice Searle died in 1997, followed by her husband in May of 2001.

Authorities estimate the baby likely was in the suitcase for more than 30 years.

An autopsy showed no signs of injury, or even that a crime was committed, Heinz said.

"The only woman who could have been the mother is dead, so the (DNA) comparison would've been with siblings," Heinz said, adding he believed the baby had gone to full term, but couldn't say whether it was stillborn or born alive.

Relatives were cooperative with investigators but refused to provide DNA, Hajnal said.

The baby was found snugly wrapped in a quilt, which had the name "Mooseheart Home" embroided on it. That was determined to have been a shelter in northern Illinois for troubled children and single mothers.

Because of the circumstance, Heinz said the death could've been a mother trying to hide a pregnancy.

"You just didn't have single mothers back then. The public wasn't as accepting as they are today about babies being born out of wedlock," he said.

The jury on Thursday ruled the death undetermined. The baby is expected to be cremated and later buried.

----------------
October 3, 2004

http://www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/b4aknhic050.html

 

[escargot]

How very sad. Unwanted from the start, possibly murdered, rejected, unnamed and unmourned in death.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Rotten.com have a good selection of pictures of the Mummies of Guanajuato:

http://poetry.rotten.com/momias/

Which have been the inspiraiton for a couple of dodgy movies (although how can any film with masked Mexican wrestlers in be bad?? Well OK.....):

Las Momias de Guanajuato / The Mummies of Guanajuato (1972)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0208306/

El Castillo de las momias de Guanajuato / Castle of Mummies of Guanajuato (1973)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0273144/

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Cult leader loses murder appeal over false beliefs

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of a 66-year-old cult leader who was sentenced to seven years in prison for murdering a sick man by attempting to cure him through supernatural means instead of proper medical treatment, according to the ruling made available Tuesday.

It is the first time the top court has declared someone guilty of murder for not taking necessary measures to save a life.

Koji Takahashi "had a duty to give (the sick man) necessary medical treatment because there was no evidence that (the defendant) could save (the man's) life by himself," said presiding Justice Ryoji Nakagawa of the top court's No. 2 Petty Bench.

The justice added that, after the supernatural treatment apparently failed, Takahashi "left the situation as it was, with the intention to kill because he felt that he didn't care if (the man) died or not.

"That can be murder by failing to take necessary actions," the justice said.

Shinichi Kobayashi, 66, was being treated for a brain hemorrhage in a hospital in Hyogo Prefecture in 1999. But Takahashi, the leader of the Life Space Group, told Kobayashi's family to move him to a hotel in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, on July 2 that year, according to the Tokyo High Court's 2003 ruling.

Takahashi then tried to treat Kobayashi by tapping his body as part of a supernatural cure, but Kobayashi died the following day after suffocating due to phlegm in his throat, according to the ruling.

Kobayashi's mummified body was found in a room at the hotel on Nov. 11, 1999.

Takahashi's attorneys argued he had no intent to kill, because he was conducting traditional medicine.

The Chiba District Court gave Takahashi 15 years in prison in February 2002, but the Tokyo High Court reduced the term to seven years after ruling he did not intend to cause Kobayashi's death.

----------
The Japan Times: July 6, 2005

www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle ... 0706a7.htm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Police Find Family Heirloom Is Mummified Baby

Investigators To Study Mummified Baby Kept By N.H. Family

UPDATED: 10:38 am CDT April 24, 2006

CONCORD, N.H. -- A family heirloom is not going over well with police.

The mummified body of a baby kept by a Concord, N.H., family has drawn attention from investigators. (Click here to see an image of the mummified baby. Warning: The image is graphic.)

The current keeper of the baby, Charles Peavey, said the tiny mummy has been passed down in his family for many years. Concord police recently got word of the remains and they took them in for testing. A forensic anthropologist will examine the tiny corpse.

Peavey said the mummy belonged to his great-great uncle, who was born in Ashland in 1850. The family estimated that the mummy is 90 years old.

It was discovered among the uncle's possessions in 1947 in Manchester, N.H.

Police said the testing on the corpse could take a month or more.

www.click2houston.com/family/8956581/detail.html

 

[maximus otter]

Researchers conduct “virtual autopsy” of mummified toddler

A multidisciplinary team of Austrian and German scientists performed a "virtual autopsy" of the 17th century mummified remains of an infant, remarkably preserved in an aristocratic family crypt. They found that despite the infant's noble upbringing, the child suffered from extreme nutritional deficiency, causing rickets or scurvy, and likely died after contracting pneumonia, according to an October paper published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.

The toddler mummy was interred in a family crypt in Hellmonsödt, Austria, belonging to one of the country's oldest aristocratic families: the Counts of Starhemberg. The crypt is near the family residence at Wildberg castle, and this was the only infant interred there, housed in a small wooden coffin with no identifying inscriptions.

While the crypt was undergoing restoration work, the infant's coffin was opened for examination. The body was wrapped in a well-preserved long silk coat with a hood that covered the skull, and the quality of the silk indicated high social status. Much of the skin was also well-preserved, including the male genitalia.

To learn more, the remains were subjected to a whole-body CT scan, enabling Nelrich et al. to create 3D reconstructions of the body, particularly the skull. The femur, tibia, and humerus reconstructions enabled them to calculate the bone length. They also took a biopsy of the soft tissue from the lower lumbar region for radiocarbon dating and histological analysis, revealing the child was about a year old when he died.

He was likely buried sometime between 1550 and 1635 CE, and Nerlich et al. used historical records to narrow the range further to after the crypt was renovated around 1600 CE. They concluded that the mummified infant remains were most likely those of Reichard Wilhelm, firstborn son of Erasmus der Jungere.

There was considerable inflammation of the lungs, consistent with pneumonia. The team also noted malformation of the ribs in a pattern consistent with severe rickets or scurvy. So even though there was evidence—in the form of subcutaneous fat tissue around the thighs—that the child had been overweight (aristocratic children would have been well-fed), he was also likely malnourished with a severe Vitamin D deficiency, making him more vulnerable to pneumonia.

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...conduct-virtual-autopsy-of-mummified-toddler/

maximus otter

 

[Frideswide]

How very sad. Unwanted from the start, possibly murdered, rejected, unnamed and unmourned in death.

I wonder if changes in the tech and in attitudes woiuld give a result now.