Mich. woman tries to sell mummy on eBay

PORT HURON, Mich. - Officials are trying to track down the origins of a mummified human skeleton that a Michigan woman tried to sell on eBay.

The St. Clair County medical examiner's office confiscated the mummified remains Tuesday from the home of Lynn Sterling. Sterling, 45, told police she got the remains from a friend who works in demolition and said he found them in a Detroit school he helped tear down nearly 30 years ago, police said. She said she had contacted an attorney before posting the remains for sale.

"It's an anatomical, medical-use skeleton," Sterling told The Times Herald of Port Huron. "I would never have put it on (eBay) if I thought it was anything other than an anatomical, medical thing."

Sterling likely won't face charges, Port Huron Police Capt. Don Porrett said, though officials said the remains will be sent to an anthropologist at Michigan State University for further examination.

St. Clair County Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz described the remains as an intact skeleton with mummified tissue. He said age, sex and race could not yet be determined, but said the remains appeared to be those of a child.

"It's very, very old. It's probably some type of anatomical dissection that was part of an anatomy class that over time got into the hands of somebody in the general public," Spitz said.

Port Huron police were notified about the eBay posting by a caller from North Carolina who spotted the item on the online auction site, Porrett said.

EBay spokeswoman Catherine England said the posting was removed Wednesday because it violated a policy against selling human remains. The Web site allows the sale of skeletons for medical use, but not mummified remains.

Curiosity did attract at least one bid before the posting was removed.

"There was a bid on it for $500 from `Satan's Child,'" Porrett said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061012/ap_on_fe_st/mummy_for_sale

I always thought cadavers were eventually buried after being used for medical research. Wonder where this child came from and why the parents didn't bury him or her.

I wonder what "Satan's Child" was going to do with it.

It says she contacted an attorney before listing. I guess ebay didn't clearly state that you can't auction unidentified dead children's bodies so she tried to...
If the story about the friend is true than he has had the body for about 30 years. I wonder if it was already mummified when he got it or was it being preserved another way.

Apparently the mummy is at least 100 years old.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061012/NEWS01/610120303

Warning for the squeamish, link contains pics.

Well, that's something I wouldn't want just laying around my house.

Mabel said:

Apparently the mummy is at least 100 years old.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061012/NEWS01/610120303

Warning for the squeamish, link contains pics.

Click to expand...

Why did I look :banghead: . Better yet why would you want a mummy? :waitasec:

As a past embalmer for a long period of time, I have often been derided on many forums (such as Taylor Biehl and others) for claiming that there is a lucrative trade in human bones. I know this to be a fact. Also, they are often taken from crypts (wall crypts) in very old cemeteries because they are so much easier to get than those that are inside a sealed vault under the ground. Remember the girl recently in Wisconsin who the three creeps tried to dig up after seeing her pix in the obit? They could not have gotten to her because they only reached the top of the vault.

When they say "6 feet under", that includes a vault nowadays, which is at least four foot tall itself. It encases the casket and can be reached at about 18-24 inches of digging. However, depending on the pocketbook of the deceaseds' family, it is either made of cement or marble or granite. It is virtually impossible to move such a heavy object without a tractor and pulley-system. These burial vaults weigh thousands of pounds (google "wilbert burial vaults"). These are very nice people that I had the honor of growing up with as a child. Their headquarters was right next door to our family's business.

This is all just to say that, once again, for the disbelievers out there, that there is a very lucrative trade in human remains, legal or otherwise. I never encountered it in my many years of funeral service, but I have heard of countless legitimate cases. This is indeed a sick sick world.

As for her mummy, I don't think it matters in this case. Certainly, she has held onto it for long enough. What would the Satan poster want to do with it? Probably to use parts of it in rituals and on an altar. The left hand is particuliarly prized and if any meat remains, it will be used as a candle until it burns out. Fat burns well.

That's enough scary stuff for now. Halloween is too close to keep this up. The soul has gone on anyway. The dead body is just a shell.

JMO

Thanks for the info. It is a sick world.
I wonder if they will be able to ID who this is and how they ended up there.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061014/NEWS01/610140303/1002



World's attention rattles skeleton seller

By SHANNON MURPHY
Times Herald



A mummified skeleton a Port Huron woman was trying to sell on eBay has created an international stir.

The skeleton was confiscated by Port Huron Police from resident Lynn Sterling's Jenkinson Street home Tuesday evening.


OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1'); http://gcirm.thetimesherald.com/Rea...boutique.jpg/34313336363162653435333231613030 On Wednesday, the St. Clair County Medical Examiners office examined the mummified remains and made plans to send it to a Michigan State University anthropologist next week for further analysis.

The medical examiner's office said the skeleton is very old and most likely was used for medical study. "It really surprises me," said Mary Palmateer, chief forensic investigator with the medical examiner's office. "I don't think they realize it's a medical specimen. People are picturing a mummy and the body wrapped in white sheets. "And it's close to Halloween."

More at link.

I think I posted this correctly...