OH OH - Lorain, UnsUnc UnkAge, UP119536, remains found in a reuseable bag in cemetery, Oct'23

[ProudSuggestion3528]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
UID Unsure, Uncertain (Unknown Race and Sex)
Lorain, OH
NamUs# UP119536

Case Numbers​

ME/C Case Number: 23-380

Demographics​

Biological Sex: Unsure
Race / Ethnicity: Uncertain
Estimated Age Group: Adult
Height: Cannot Estimate
Weight: Cannot Estimate

Circumstances​

Type: Unidentified Deceased
Date Body Found: October 31, 2023
NamUs Case Created: April 5, 2024

Location Found Map​

Location: Lorain, Ohio 44053
County: Lorain County
Found On Tribal Land: No
Circumstances of Recovery: The unidentified remains were found on 31 October 2023 within a reusable grocery shopping bag at a local cemetery in Lorain Ohio. On 01 November 2023 the Lorain Police Department transported suspected human remains to the Lorain County Coroner’s Office where they were examined. Initial examination evidences mummified and partially skeletonized remains consisting of a complete skull and mandible with retention of the C1 and C2 cervical vertebrae, the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage, the manubrium, and the left clavicle. The remains were examined for evidence of antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem pathology or trauma. The remains evidence partially skeletonized and partially mummified skeletal elements with evidence of advanced decomposition, mummification, and desiccation of bone and residual soft and connective tissues. There is no evidence of funerary intervention of the residual skin and soft tissue of the mouth or jaw. Following partial maceration and radiology, the mouth is identified as edentulous with artificial maxillary and mandibular dentures are present in situ. The skeletal elements do not evidence any decompositional odor. Based on the examination of the residual soft tissues and skeletal elements available for analysis, the remains appear to be several years or more postmortem.

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Details of Recovery​

Condition of Remains: Not recognizable - Partial skeletal parts only

Physical Description​

Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown

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No Distinctive Physical Features Entered​

Clothing and Accessories​

Accessories: Maxillary and mandibular dentures in situ. Vulcanite dentures with porcelain teeth. - On the Body

 

[lightofmine99]

Well this is very weird.

 

[Bethan]

Agreed @lightofmine99, the mention of ‘vulcanite dentures with porcelain teeth’ has taken me down an internet rabbit-hole exploring the history of dentures!

Found an online article, aimed at those in the dental field, entitled “Dental Products Report” outlining the history of dentures.

The biggest evolution in dentures is almost here

With digital dentistry taking the industry by storm, the future of dentures is looking bright.

www.dentalproductsreport.com

From this article

1) Vulcanite first used for dentures, with porcelain teeth in 1854.

2) Shortcomings with both materials but these continued to be used for about 75yrs.

3) The introduction of methyl methacrylate in 1937 as an “ideal denture base material” changed everything.

By 1946, some experts estimated that 95 percent of dentures were made with methyl methacrylate polymers (PMMA).

4) When Elfring started as a dental technician 40 years ago, he remembers “old-timers” talking about Vulcanite dentures. By the 1970s, however, most denture bases had transitioned to PMMA materials. The tooth materials had also made a transition to PMMA resins, which provided many benefits to both the technician and the patient.

Hopefully the dentures will help in dating & perhaps identification of the remains

 

[iamshadow21]

Agreed @lightofmine99, the mention of ‘vulcanite dentures with porcelain teeth’ has taken me down an internet rabbit-hole exploring the history of dentures!

Found an online article, aimed at those in the dental field, entitled “Dental Products Report” outlining the history of dentures.

The biggest evolution in dentures is almost here

With digital dentistry taking the industry by storm, the future of dentures is looking bright.

www.dentalproductsreport.com

From this article

1) Vulcanite first used for dentures, with porcelain teeth in 1854.

2) Shortcomings with both materials but these continued to be used for about 75yrs.

3) The introduction of methyl methacrylate in 1937 as an “ideal denture base material” changed everything.

By 1946, some experts estimated that 95 percent of dentures were made with methyl methacrylate polymers (PMMA).

4) When Elfring started as a dental technician 40 years ago, he remembers “old-timers” talking about Vulcanite dentures. By the 1970s, however, most denture bases had transitioned to PMMA materials. The tooth materials had also made a transition to PMMA resins, which provided many benefits to both the technician and the patient.

Hopefully the dentures will help in dating & perhaps identification of the remains

Just based on the dentures, could this victim be eighty or more years deceased? But then, why in a reusable shopping bag, which is presumably modern? Very strange.

 

[ProudSuggestion3528]

Vulcanite · History of Dentures from beginning to early 19th century · Exhibits

Porcelain Teeth · History of Dentures from beginning to early 19th century · Exhibits

Shading Porcelain Teeth · History of Dentures from beginning to early 19th century · Exhibits

Just some links on old dentures from the University of Toronto.

Charles Goodyear | Rubber, Vulcanization, Inventor

Charles Goodyear was an American inventor of the vulcanization process that made possible the commercial use of rubber. Goodyear began his career as a partner in his father’s hardware business, which went bankrupt in 1830. He then became interested in discovering a method of treating india rubber

www.britannica.com

"In 1839 he accidentally dropped some India rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove and so discovered vulcanization. He was granted his first patent in 1844 but had to fight numerous infringements in court; the decisive victory did not come until 1852."

Vulcanization | Definition, Inventor, History, Process, & Facts

Vulcanization, chemical process by which the physical properties of natural or synthetic rubber are improved; finished rubber has higher tensile strength and resistance to swelling and abrasion, and is elastic over a greater range of temperatures. It was discovered in 1839 by Charles Goodyear.

britannica.com

Edit: Added a brief history on how vulcanization was created from Charles Goodyear and how Vulcanization was created in a little more detail.

 

[Susikatze]

I hope they checked the burials if they are all intact. There have been several very similar cases in other places where people for different reasons (necrophily, curiosity/pranking, ritualistic) opened up burials or went into burial vaults and took some remains out fully or partially. The body parts they were not "interested in" ended up being discarded in very similar fashions.
I am all for CCTV at cemeteries.

 

[Hestia's Fire]

I hope they checked the burials if they are all intact. There have been several very similar cases in other places where people for different reasons (necrophily, curiosity/pranking, ritualistic) opened up burials or went into burial vaults and took some remains out fully or partially. The body parts they were not "interested in" ended up being discarded in very similar fashions.
I am all for CCTV at cemeteries.

I think this is very likely, especially considering the remains were found on Halloween. I doubt that's a coincidence- someone was up to something weird.

If they had been found on any other date, I could come up with a couple more vaguely plausible scenarios:

• Your elderly parent passes away and, in cleaning out their house, you make the horrifying discovery that they've been holding on to the remains of their own deceased parent or grandparent in the attic, maybe because they couldn't afford a funeral at the time, and now you're faced with having to report this to the police and sully the family name so you panic and ditch the body at the cemetery where your parent is buried so they can be 'together'. I can't really buy this hypothesis because the remains were little more than a skull, not an entire body, so the scenario doesn't really hold water.
• You're digging on your property or in the basement of your old house and you come across these partial remains that you had no idea were there. You can't call the police because you're doing something big-time illegal like growing illegal drugs or some other sketchy behavior you wouldn't be able to hide. You want these remains off your property and you don't want to just toss somebody's skull in the trash so you grab a grocery bag and secret the remains off to the cemetery because that seems like an appropriately respectful place to leave them. I could almost buy this scenario if it weren't for the Halloween thing.

I agree all cemeteries should have CCTV. People get up to all kinds of stuff in cemeteries people would never believe. I'm a retired funeral director and have managed a few funeral home-cemetery combos and people would just go out into the cemetery all the time to do the weirdest stuff you can imagine. I never knew from one day to the next what kind of oddball behavior I was going to find when I'd come to work in the morning, from run of the mill theft and graffiti to people having sex on graves, beheading chickens, staging goth photo shoots, attempting suicide... it was wild.

 

[lightofmine99]

I'm wondering if it's the second scenario @Hestia's Fire mentioned, only maybe the someone who dropped the remains off didn't call the cops not because they had anything to hide (like drugs) but because they were just terrified and acted irrationally. There are several cases on NamUs I've come across that read, "Landlord found human skull and femur in attic of recently acquired rental property" or something similar.

Sure, those people called the cops immediately but there's probably an equal amount of innocent people that would choose a different route. That said, even if we're dealing with an irrational brain, why would you use a plastic shopping bag instead of a box? Leaving them at a cemetery and in a plastic bag indicates they wanted the bones found, maybe hoping the city would take care of the burial. They were found on Halloween but that doesn't mean they were left there on that date. We would have to ask groundskeepers how often they scan the property for debris.

The evidence of a denture remaining on the skull implies these weren't old medical specimens someone found.

 

[Hestia's Fire]

I wish they would tell us which cemetery in Lorain it was. There are several, and some look like they would have groundskeepers there every day, and others might be relatively unused and only have maintenance workers there when the grass needs to be cut or something.

 

[tatertot]

I suspect the scenario is much like what @lightofmine99 described. Folks can be downright feral on social media and good old face-to-face gossip, and if the finder had reported their discovery to LE, I can sadly see the reactions after it became apparent LE was digging on the property and remains had been found, no matter how old:
"He/she was always kinda weird..."
"He/she had a minor charge from 1975 so this isn't surprising..."

I will never forget the ridiculous comments on a local FB group about the unsolved murder of a child (whose case I won't name because it's on WS) and the accusations against the parents, who were never named as suspects by LE. Feral, cruel and inane.

I feel bad for whoever found these remains and on the off-chance they come across this case on WS, I hope they talk to someone, maybe clergy if they're comfortable with it, about approaching LE. They've done nothing wrong as far as I can see and it would be great if LE could give this individual a final, peaceful resting place without undue attention.

 

[carbuff]

This detail: "There is no evidence of funerary intervention of the residual skin and soft tissue of the mouth or jaw."

Inclines me very strongly to the theory that somebody uncovered the skull and the few attached bones somewhere (attic, crawl space, under stacks of hoarded boxes) and left them in the cemetery for lack of a better place to leave them. They probably just didn't want to go to the hassle of dealing with police and bureaucracy and all the rest.

 

[subaw0067]

I don't believe these came from a burial due to the detail @carbuff mentioned above. I'm most inclined to believe someone discovered these and brought them to the cemetery. I'd be very interested to know who this is and how long ago they passed away.

 

[subaw0067]

Here is a recent article about this case. According to the article the bag was hanging on the door of a mausoleum at Elmwood Cemetery (640 N Ridge Rd, Lorain, OH 44053). Also from the article "Dr. Miller believes this person was a woman, middle-aged or older, who was possibly born in the 1930s or 40s". He also states he believes she was 50-60 years old. So she died 1980-2000.

 

[subaw0067]

@othram Here's an especially weird one for you.

 

[bluefantastic]

Is it possible the bones were dug up for maintenance or construction on the graveyard and then misplaced? A church in Sweden got in trouble for storing medieval bones in IKEA bags when the reburial got caught in red tape. Many graveyards have also lost coffins during reburials.