This is the unexpected answer to a mystery that dates back more than 40 years: who owns this skull found in the walls of a house during its renovation in 1978? The answer is now known, it is that of Esther Granger, who died 150 years ago.
In 1978, while renovating his house in the US state of Indiana, a man discovered this bone, which then belonged to an unknown victim. But the capabilities of the time in terms of DNA identification did not allow the deceased to be identified with certainty, as forensic pathologist Robert Russell explained on Thursday, October 24, during a press conference.
The case was dismissed when authorities at the time at least determined that the victim was a young woman, who died in her mid-twenties, before the 20th century, CNN reported.
Since then, the skull has been preserved in a museum in the city of Batavia. It was when employees found it by chance in March 2021, during a cleaning, that it returned to investigators.
Identification through living relatives
Therefore, the investigation was resumed, galvanized in 2023 thanks to the use of a Texas company specialized in the study of unsolved cases. The Othram Company, which helps solve these cold cases using DNA data.
The firm was able to decode the DNA of the human remains, and was even able to establish their family tree, and thus located relatives of Esther Granger who are alive today. Authorities then contacted Wayne Svilar, the American’s great-great-grandson. At first, the 69-year-old descendant didn’t believe the whole story.
“To be completely honest, we didn’t believe a word of it. It took me two or three phone calls to believe it,” Wayne said.
Ultimately, experts were able to determine that Esther was born in 1848 and later died in Indiana at the age of 17 in 1866, dying from complications during childbirth. Curiously, his body had been buried several dozen kilometers from where the skull was found. The preferred hypothesis to explain this movement is that of a grave robber.
“There is no definitive answer as to how Esther ended up on this wall or where the rest of her body is, but being the victim of a grave robbery “completely corresponds” to this hypothesis, the lawyer concluded. Since then, the remains of the deceased They have been reburied in a Batavia cemetery, 150 years after their deaths.
Source: BFM TV
