Remains of a person who died over fifty years ago have been exhumed from a cemetery in Wrentham, Massachusetts, for DNA testing.
For nearly five decades, the grave was marked only by a number, 18. It wasn’t until a year or so ago that Center Cemetery staff realized the identity and cause of death of the person interred there have been a mystery all this time.
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“It was pretty random how this came about,” said Ray Rose, Center Cemetery manager. “[My colleague] and I were looking through the cemetery cards and we came across a card that said ‘unidentified skeleton,’ and from that point on it kind of piqued my curiosity.”
Rose said he started by going to Town Hall to look at the death certificates and found the year of death was listed in 1974, two years before the remains were interred in the cemetery.
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News articles published at that time in the Woonsocket Call and Sun Chronicle reported the skeleton was found by two young hikers in the woods near Franklin Street on April 20, 2974. Investigators at the time determined the skeleton belonged to a white man, about 5’8 in height, and that it had been there for at least two years. Some of the items found at the scene included an empty wallet, Canadian and American coins, a pair of white sneakers, and a gold onyx ring.
Rose also learned from those reports that his friend Fred True was the photographer for the Wrentham Police Department at the time and responded to the scene. True recalled the details vividly.
“There was a noose from a tree. And the skull had separated from the torso, dropped straight underneath the noose, but it was a slight hill so the skull rolled down the hill. The nature and animals picked the bones clean so there was nothing left,” said True. “We didn’t have the technology back then, just the local papers. We had articles in the Sun Chronicle and the Woosocket Call but there was just a few lines and some pictures. Nobody reported anything.”
Rose shared his findings with True, the Wrentham Historical Commission and State Representative Marcus Vaughn who helped initiate the process of getting authorization to exhume the body for DNA testing, which took over a year.
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Monday, they all gathered at the cemetery to see it finally happen.
“I don’t like the idea of somebody being interred here with no knowledge of their life, or their story, or their family, history, nothing,” said Rose. “They were obviously robbed of a full life, robbed of the privilege of having a family and, you know, retiring and so forth, I’d like to see that they didn’t get robbed of everything which would include nobody knowing who they were and where they ended up.”
Should DNA testing reveal the identity of the deceased or any living relatives, Rose said it would be up to the next of kin to decide where the remains would be interred again. If the remains return to Wrentham, Rose said he would like to provide a marker to commemorate what they learn about the person.
As Rose and his colleague Jacob worked to re-fill the grave where the remains were exhumed, he said they found what appeared to be another skull, loose teeth, a plastic bag and a pill bottle. They turned those items over to law enforcement for investigation.
