UNSOLVED KS - Skeleton Found In Coffin In Business Attic In Derby, *graphic Pics* June 2018

[madamx]

Nice find.

The history of lodges and fraternal orders in the U.S. is fascinating, and their influence postdates some of their shelf lives -- my family is, for example, buried in an IOOF cemetery, even though none of them ever was in a lodge in their lives.

Independent Order of Odd Fellows - Wikipedia

Odd Fellows Have Skeletons in Their Closets--and Their Walls and Attics - LA Times

I am so intrigued by this Odd Fellows.. I had never heard of it.. Now I cant stop looking it up.. They are everywhere! Still does not tell you who the skeletons are or where they actually came from.. oh so creepy.

 

[madamx]

Much more common than I ever thought. Makes you wonder if these skeletons are from actual Missing people... There are many more but I just posted some.. Again.. makes me wonder if some of these skeletons are actual missing people from years ago.. And who would really know..The Odd Fellows were so secretive that if it was a missing person I doubt they would say anything...Seems like these lodges were all over the US and in England too... Oh this is so weird.

'Odd Fellows' skeletons laid to rest

Two skeletons, origins unknown, now reside in Strasburg antiques shop

Odd Fellows Skeletons Lurk in Closets and Attics Across America

Odd Fellows Skeleton « Obnoxious Antiques

http://darkfinds.net/2017/08/the-sk...s-lurks-in-closets-and-attics-across-america/

Auction of Human Skeleton appropriate for Halloween

this one is fake but from Odd Fellows In remodeling their downtown apartment, Kay and Robert McDaniel expected to find typical attic treasures. What they did not expect to find was a black coffin containing a six-foot replica skeleton.

ODD FELLOW EARLY COFFIN WITH HUMAN SKELETON, FROM on LiveAuctioneers

In West Plains, a human skeleton sells for $500

 

[Gardener1850]

Good video interview with the man who found the remains here: Renovation Reveals Coffin with Human Remains

 

[Hazelnutty]

Holy Cow. Can you imagine innocently running across a human Skeleton , much less a human Skeleton crammed into a too-small open coffin?
If ghosts could speak I think this one wants to be put in size- friendly resting place.

 

[drama_farmer]

Much more common than I ever thought. Makes you wonder if these skeletons are from actual Missing people... There are many more but I just posted some.. Again.. makes me wonder if some of these skeletons are actual missing people from years ago.. And who would really know..The Odd Fellows were so secretive that if it was a missing person I doubt they would say anything...Seems like these lodges were all over the US and in England too... Oh this is so weird.

'Odd Fellows' skeletons laid to rest

Two skeletons, origins unknown, now reside in Strasburg antiques shop

Odd Fellows Skeletons Lurk in Closets and Attics Across America

Odd Fellows Skeleton « Obnoxious Antiques

http://darkfinds.net/2017/08/the-sk...s-lurks-in-closets-and-attics-across-america/

Auction of Human Skeleton appropriate for Halloween

this one is fake but from Odd Fellows In remodeling their downtown apartment, Kay and Robert McDaniel expected to find typical attic treasures. What they did not expect to find was a black coffin containing a six-foot replica skeleton.

ODD FELLOW EARLY COFFIN WITH HUMAN SKELETON, FROM on LiveAuctioneers

In West Plains, a human skeleton sells for $500

Great links! From one of them: Odd Fellows Skeletons Lurk in Closets and Attics Across America

Initiation into the Odd Fellows, the “poor man’s Masonry,” involved a ceremony in which the pledge would come face-to-face with a skeleton in a candle-lit room to contemplate their mortality. Modern ceremonies use paper mache skeletons, but in the early days they used real human remains. As lodges closed throughout much of the 20th century, these skeletons were often abandoned and forgotten in the buildings where they had served in candle-lit induction rites for decades. The result is a bizarre and ongoing phenomenon of unsuspecting (and sometimes horrified) people unearthing human skeletons from dark crannies of old buildings around the country.

 

[beatrixpotter]

That video was very interesting. The "attic" was very different from what I pictured. I wouldn't have thought of that as attic at all honestly. I pictured a place with lots of other things stored with it. I would have called that more "in the ceiling" I guess. It didn't look like a place you could really walk or store things. It makes it seem even stranger to me. Hard to imagine at this point that it was placed with a lot of items and just forgotten. That seems more of a place chosen to hide that coffin.

 

[Bit of hope]

Much more common than I ever thought. Makes you wonder if these skeletons are from actual Missing people... There are many more but I just posted some.. Again.. makes me wonder if some of these skeletons are actual missing people from years ago.. And who would really know..The Odd Fellows were so secretive that if it was a missing person I doubt they would say anything...Seems like these lodges were all over the US and in England too... Oh this is so weird.

'Odd Fellows' skeletons laid to rest

Two skeletons, origins unknown, now reside in Strasburg antiques shop

Odd Fellows Skeletons Lurk in Closets and Attics Across America

Odd Fellows Skeleton « Obnoxious Antiques

http://darkfinds.net/2017/08/the-sk...s-lurks-in-closets-and-attics-across-america/

Auction of Human Skeleton appropriate for Halloween

this one is fake but from Odd Fellows In remodeling their downtown apartment, Kay and Robert McDaniel expected to find typical attic treasures. What they did not expect to find was a black coffin containing a six-foot replica skeleton.

ODD FELLOW EARLY COFFIN WITH HUMAN SKELETON, FROM on LiveAuctioneers

In West Plains, a human skeleton sells for $500

Thank you, very interesting all of this, but also very very weird. I can't image a country in Europe were coffins with skeletons (re)appear from everywhere. We have a saying though 'a dead body in the closet", meaning: an unpleasant legacy from the past. In that sense this is. lol. Also a very big question: who were the persons in this coffins.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

Human remains found inside coffin at building being renovated in Derby

Well, let’s get the usual theories out of the way:
1) Skeleton was Amish, left for Rumspringa and never returned.
2) Skeleton was fleeing an abusive relationship.
3) Skeleton left Polygamous cult.
4) Skeleton was a foreign spy.
In all seriousness, those are some really long femurs, and that is a child’s coffin. Not a medical specimen, top of skull is always cut off for those. Probably an old ritual piece for Masons or someone.

 

[drama_farmer]

Well, let’s get the usual theories out of the way:
1) Skeleton was Amish, left for Rumspringa and never returned.
2) Skeleton was fleeing an abusive relationship.
3) Skeleton left Polygamous cult.
4) Skeleton was a foreign spy.
In all seriousness, those are some really long femurs, and that is a child’s coffin. Not a medical specimen, top of skull is always cut off for those. Probably an old ritual piece for Masons or someone.

The angle of the camera and lens being used could be distorting the proportions, but, if that's not the case, I have to agree with you about the lengthy femurs (thigh bones). What also caught my eye was the skull. For some reason, the thought: "Why the Long Face?" came to mind.

Hmmm, did the renovation company stumble upon the "Missing Link?" (insert tongue-in-cheek emoji here)

 

[flute4peace]

Well, let’s get the usual theories out of the way:
1) Skeleton was Amish, left for Rumspringa and never returned.
2) Skeleton was fleeing an abusive relationship.
3) Skeleton left Polygamous cult.
4) Skeleton was a foreign spy.
In all seriousness, those are some really long femurs, and that is a child’s coffin. Not a medical specimen, top of skull is always cut off for those. Probably an old ritual piece for Masons or someone.

There are Amish within an hour of that area...

 

[PetDetective]

We do have a 2002 missing case from Derby:

JENNIFER L. WILSON - DERBY, KANSAS — FBI

Fat chance of a connection, but is anyone good enough at Photoshop to overlay her image with the skull?

 

[watcher9]

It looks like the skull was placed in the coffin. The missing teeth could be a clue if it is discovered they weren't knocked out. The other bones look to be piled in like they had been moved from another location.

 

[Laughing]

To follow up list of "the usual," is the Air Force base there still active???

 

[Magnum P.E.]

To follow up list of "the usual," is the Air Force base there still active???

Laughing, I don’t remember any standard Websleuths theories involving the Air Force, unless maybe perhaps the Skeleton deserted.
As a college fraternity member, I am familiar with certain (cough cough) rituals, which were ALWAYS conducted by candlelight for effect. Note what looks like candle wax around the top of the coffin. The fact that the building was a former Odd Fellows lodge is enough for me. Simplest explanation, Occam’s Razor and all that, though one would think they would have taken their skeleton when they vacated.....

 

[Ubee0173]

Well, let’s get the usual theories out of the way:
1) Skeleton was Amish, left for Rumspringa and never returned.
2) Skeleton was fleeing an abusive relationship.
3) Skeleton left Polygamous cult.
4) Skeleton was a foreign spy.
In all seriousness, those are some really long femurs, and that is a child’s coffin. Not a medical specimen, top of skull is always cut off for those. Probably an old ritual piece for Masons or someone.

A Foreign Spy that infiltrated a Polygamous Amish Cult and fled the abusive conditions during Rumspringa...only to be ritually sacrificed by Satanists who sold the remains to Masons in Derby KS! Seems totally reasonable.

Dark humour aside, this is pretty disturbing and hopefully it turns out to be poorly stored historic remains displaced by flooding or construction or something and not something sinister.

 

[meanmaryjean]

A Foreign Spy that infiltrated a Polygamous Amish Cult and fled the abusive conditions during Rumspringa...only to be ritually sacrificed by Satanists who sold the remains to Masons in Derby KS! Seems totally reasonable.

Dark humour aside, this is pretty disturbing and hopefully it turns out to be poorly stored historic remains displaced by flooding or construction or something and not something sinister.

"Polygamous Amish Cult" would be a good name for a band.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

A Foreign Spy that infiltrated a Polygamous Amish Cult and fled the abusive conditions during Rumspringa...only to be ritually sacrificed by Satanists who sold the remains to Masons in Derby KS! Seems totally reasonable.

Dark humour aside, this is pretty disturbing and hopefully it turns out to be poorly stored historic remains displaced by flooding or construction or something and not something sinister.

Ubee, you may have broken the case! I did some more research on Odd Fellows, and it is pretty consistent that the ritual skeleton was kept in a secret closet when not needed. All members did not have to know where it was kept. If the casket has three rings on it, the Odd Fellows insignia, that would clinch it. As to when, where, and how they got it, you hear stories of lodge members who left their skeletons in their will for ritual use, but that could just be a story. Back in the day, an indigent person’s skeleton might be sold by a funeral director or doctor.
I have heard of one of these skeletons that was rigged so that the jaw and hands could be moved by an invisible wire. I would imagine that a few pairs of underwear were soiled from time to time.

I see you are relatively new. This one is not all that sinister by the standards of Websleuths, that’s why we can exhibit some gallows humor about it.

 

[Amonet]

Can I ask a stupid question....are the lower leg bones placed in upside down or the right way up? I'm not that good with skeletons.

I was trying to estimate the height, but I think I got a bit lost on it.

 

[Betty P]

Odd Fellows are actually a pretty good organization. My grandfather, gr-grandfathers were members, my uncle is still the head of an IOOF lodge and my grandmother was a Rebekah. They really are a good community service organization, helping the poor and sick. A few years ago when visiting my uncle, he showed me some of the ceremony they use for initiation of new members. It didn't involve any caskets or skeletons.

 

[carbuff]

I've seen coffins like that used when remains have to be removed from a grave or crypt. The particular one I saw, the remains were being moved from a cemetery where a landslide had destroyed a family crypt. They moved the bones into small coffins similar to this.

Some of the bones in this coffin look quite weathered. That would fit with a grave being exposed by weather. But it's hard to say.