MA MA - Norfolk Co, UnkFem, Adult, UP101932, Remains found in cemetery, Mar '23

[imstilla.grandma]

The discovery was called “unusual and concerning” in a statement by the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office shared by the Stoughton Police Department on March 24.

The human remains were not inside a coffin when they were found buried at the Dry Pond Cemetery in Stoughton on March 22, the statement said.

Now the chief medical examiner in Boston is analyzing the remains, according to authorities.

Currently, the person’s identity, their cause of death and how their body ended up at the Dry Pond Cemetery is a mystery, according to the statement.

The district attorney’s office will release more information on the investigation when it’s ”appropriate,” the statement said.

The Dry Pond Cemetery is a small cemetery with the earliest marked gravestone dating to 1749, according to the Sharon Historical Society in Sharon, Massachusetts. The site is home to the final resting places of several Revolutionary War and Civil War veterans.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article273636680.html

 

[cocomod]

Okay - are there any missing people in the area??

Ana Walshe??

Norfolk, MA Area Missing Persons

Missing Persons in Norfolk, MA.

spotcrime.com

 

[keek]

Okay - are there any missing people in the area??

Ana Walshe??

Norfolk, MA Area Missing Persons

Missing Persons in Norfolk, MA.

spotcrime.com

Not her, if you have followed her case, she would not be in one piece as they have discovered. We don't know how long the remains have been there at this time, so hopefully the information will be released on who it is when the pathology, crime lab, etc. are completed. Sandra Crispo from Hanson, MA has been missing for prob four years this summer, but sure she is out to sea.

 

[musicaljoke]

If it's been an active cemetery since the mid 18th century, or possibly earlier than that, then perhaps they have uncovered a burial from days long past.

 

[phantomstrider]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)​

Date Body Found March 22, 2023​

Location Found Stoughton, Massachusetts​

Sex Female​

Race/Ethnicity Uncertain​

Estimated Age Group Adult​

Height 4'7" (55 inches), Measured​

Weight 69 lbs, Measured​

County Stoughton, Massachusetts​

Found On Tribal Land No​

Condition of Remains Not recognizable- Decomposing/putrefaction​

Hair Color Unknown​

Eye Color Unknown​

 

[vereb]

Presumably this one (includes video of the grave site):
Body found in shallow grave in Stoughton cemetery

Edit: a previous thread exists
MA - MA - Cemetery worker finds unknown remains found while digging new grave, Dry Pond Cemetery, Stoughton, 22 Mar 2023

 

[EmiliaRT007]

4’7” and 69 pounds?! That’s really small. Maybe that could give some clues. If anyone knows a super short woman that hasn’t been seen for a while… I think it’s unusual enough where it can be a clue.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

4’7” and 69 pounds?! That’s really small. Maybe that could give some clues. If anyone knows a super short woman that hasn’t been seen for a while… I think it’s unusual enough where it can be a clue.

Just to clarify for anyone outside the United States 4’7” is 140 cm and 69 pounds is 32.5 kg.

 

[RememberingRyan]

This person has a Namus page now: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Female, ethnicity uncertain, 4'7" tall, and 69lbs.....

I presume this means that these remains were not skeletonized and therefore are probably a more recent death, given the weight and noted as decomposing/putrefaction...

***Edit, just saw where this UID has another thread: MA - MA-Norfolk Co, UnkFem, Adult, UP101932, Remains found in cemetery, Mar '23

 

[Puzzleworth]

It looks like the remains were found in the "new" section, from my searching FindAGrave and the newsreel (thank you, Ms Carol Romanelli, for having such a distinctive gravestone!) on a section that backs up against a neighboring house's backyard. Surrounding burials date from at least 1988 up to this year.

 

[RememberingRyan]

Strange to me that there are no notes regarding hair or clothing despite the remains being recent enough to weigh 69lbs. Was the person buried nude? Was no hair located?

I am going to presume that the remains were in a stage of active decay and had already lost some water volume, resulting in that really low BMI, since the person is estimated to be an adult (because while 4’7” is very petite, it would still be very unusual for any adult to have a BMI of 16). That would mean the person probably died at least a month before they were found. But in that state of decay, they should have still had hair.

 

[Richard]

It would be nice to have more information. How long had the remains been there? was the ground disturbed prior to the grave digger doing his work?

Finding remains in unmarked graves is not at all an odd thing in historic cemeteries. It was often the practice in previous centuries to only mark graves with wooden boards or crosses which by now are long gone. It is also possible that mistakes were made in records keeping or when digging previous graves in the wrong places.

 

[RememberingRyan]

It would be nice to have more information. How long had the remains been there? was the ground disturbed prior to the grave digger doing his work?

Finding remains in unmarked graves is not at all an odd thing in historic cemeteries. It was often the practice in previous centuries to only mark graves with wooden boards or crosses which by now are long gone. It is also possible that mistakes were made in records keeping or when digging previous graves in the wrong places.

For the remains to weigh 69lbs and be listed as decomposing/putrification, they could not have been fully skeletonized yet - so almost certainly not historic remains. This person was not in a casket, so the probability that staff just accidentally recorded the wrong plot after a recent prior burial is also improbable.

 

[iulia]

The NamUs page for this Doe is down.

 

[Keane]

Nothing on the usual Boston-area news sources yet.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

It would be nice to have more information. How long had the remains been there? was the ground disturbed prior to the grave digger doing his work?

Finding remains in unmarked graves is not at all an odd thing in historic cemeteries. It was often the practice in previous centuries to only mark graves with wooden boards or crosses which by now are long gone. It is also possible that mistakes were made in records keeping or when digging previous graves in the wrong places.

Was she buried in any type of coffin? If not, that might make a record keeping issue less plausible??

 

[Richard]

Was she buried in any type of coffin? If not, that might make a record keeping issue less plausible??

I do not have any specifics on this case. It is why I said it would be nice to have more information.

As a person who has done volunteer work for a local church cemetery that dates back to the mid 1700's, I can say that accepted burial practices (and deviations from those practices) have changed dramatically over the years.

Record keeping varies from one church or cemetery to another - everything from no records at all to very detailed ones.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

I do not have any specifics on this case. It is why I said it would be nice to have more information.

As a person who has done volunteer work for a local church cemetery that dates back to the mid 1700's, I can say that accepted burial practices (and deviations from those practices) have changed dramatically over the years.

Yeah, it would be nice. We don’t even know her race let alone if she was buried in a coffin!

 

[CheddarMom]

Yeah, it would be nice. We don’t even know her race let alone if she was buried in a coffin!

As far as I know she wasn't buried in any kind of coffin. Just buried. We don't know much more than the height and weight I think.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

As far as I know she wasn't buried in any kind of coffin. Just buried. We don't know much more than the height and weight I think.

Weird. So her body was just kind of “there?”