Identified! MT - Missoula, Skeletal remains of 3 children in box, Sep'17 - Historic remains

[MissUnderstood]

I’m really surprised I was hopeful a breakthrough had been made in the Skelton case. It might be difficult finding out the names of the remains but hopefully they can properly be laid to rest.

The father was pretty adamant it wasn’t them. He knows where they really are. Moo


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[LucyOso]

Interesting, Kind of scary that someone would have bones that old especially since they are from children.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news...d-in-montana-are-not-missing-skelton-brothers

"According to the report, the bone fragments and teeth had been buried for "some time" prior to being uncovered and exposed to the elements. The report narrowed the age windows for the three sets of human remains, finding that they belonged to:

• An individual 2-5 years of age
• An individual 5-9 years of age
• An individual 6-8 years of age

North Texas found that the 2- to 5-year-old individual and possibly some of the loose teeth were from a person of Asian derived Amerindian ancestry. "

They could have been a lab prop. For training archeology or forensics students. That would make sense. In a box with rocks. As for obtaining them, there used to be big business in supplying parts for medical sciences. There weren’t ethics or regulations many years ago. Happy this is the outcome, though it’s interesting to me that we had the same situation in Idaho with 2-3 children this summer and now this. Same freeay running through the area. Is there any way a perp can
age bones?

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...-darker-side-of-stanley-park/article13942211/

This article, although not directly related to this case, mentions a few possibilities.

First being a small pox epidemic in the late 1800's that led to several being buried in unmarked graves. (I think someone already mentioned)

And the two child's skulls found in the 90's, particularly Kenneth Lutz, whose skull was found by a woodcutter who just kept it for 3 years. I saw a program about it and he had it sitting on a shelf in his workshop IIRC.

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[carbuff]

It's pretty common for people to remove bones and other relics from old graves. That's why archaeology digs seldom release the precise location of their finds--people will come in and take everything.

Now that we know it's a red herring, I guess I can say that according to my Montana relatives, there was something specific about the find that made them suspect a tie to Michigan. It wasn't just "well it's the same number of kids."

 

[DakotaMayi]

Wait, who are they? Why is this "Identified!"?

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Wait, who are they? Why is this "Identified!"?

I'm guessing because they were identified as being historical remains and found not to be missing persons.

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[DakotaMayi]

I'm guessing because they were identified as being historical remains and found not to be missing persons.

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Thank you. How strange. I thought if we didn't know who they were, we wouldn't know if they were missing/murdered etc. There has to be some questionable reason why someone has 3 sets of bones just in a box.

I guess I just feel it has been left a bit open ended and identified isn't really the right word for this outcome.

 

[SpanishMossAntiques]

Here in Illinois (near Chicago) it's not uncommon to find the bones of Native Americans and also early pioneers - I lived in the Gold Coast area of Chicago a few years back (it's a very, very busy/congested area), and when workers were remodeling the building across the street they found a couple of skeletons - turns out they were from people who died in the Great Chicago Fire. Also, in Riverside (about a mile from where I live now), workers were installing a new water pipe, and came across the remains of a Native American next to the DesPlaines River - the area was a massive Indian village way back when. When I was little I used to play on top of all the burial mounds next to the river - they were everywhere then.

My guess is either they:

1. Were dug up on a property. (Building a house, gardening, sewage pipes, etc). If they are that old possibly that's where they were at first laid to rest.
2. Found somewhere and kept. I've done that with deer skulls and animal vertebrae. In some historical cemeteries here some bone pieces erode to the surface. I don't know why anyone would keep those though, it's creepy!

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[dustinblock]

Hi all,

Quick update on Shattered Podcast, which is revisiting this case. Episode 5 dropped today and focuses on John Skelton and the secrets he olds in a Michigan prison. WDIV actually interacted with John for their TV special, so he'll likely appear on a later episode. This episode tries to present John's side, but it's tough because 1.) His family isn't talking and 2.) His defense rests on believing John gave the boys away to some secretive organization. More here: https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/episode-5-me-myself-and-john_

Also, Jeremy Allen and Sandra Ali recorded an episode of Nancy Grace's podcast. That should be coming out soon.

 

[watcher9]

Don't know why but when I read this article about remains of a missing woman being found but originally misidentified, I immediately thought of these precious little boys and the bones found in the box.

Remains of cold case victim, mother of 2, believed to be found on Colorado mountain

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Reposting this from the unidentified victims of Eugene Butler thread since LE reached out to the public in 2016 in search of the lost remains of said victims. ND - ND - Niagara, Six nude bodies buried in crawlspace, c. 1906

Public may hold key to solving 100-year-old ND murder mystery

According to newspaper clippings at the time, townspeople who caught wind of the serial killings flocked to the farmstead to collect bones belonging to the victims and took them as souvenirs.

(...)

Scientists say the bigger the bone, like a skull or femur, the more useful it would be. Stubblefield would not be surprised if skulls from this event still exist, as they are often kept as trophies.

“If there is a story attached to that skull, you just keep it, especially the family members will maintain possession, just keep passing it down and pass the story down,” said Stubblefield.

Those last sentences, and the fact that people raided the property in hunt for some macabre souvenirs, made me think of this case. The timeline would fit, but several of the bones would be either broken or crushed. The skulls would bear marks being hit from behind.

 

[Blurgle]

Thing is, “over 99 years” doesn’t necessarily mean 100 years. These children could easily have died 200, 300, 400 years ago.

As to why they were in that box: unfortunately there was in the past a huge market for authentic indigenous people’s bones. You could buy entire skeletons or individual bones for very little. Also, someone who dug up a body or bodies in the yard back in the 20s would have been exceedingly unlikely to have contacted the authorities if there was any sign they were indigenous, and any complaint on behalf of a band whose cemetery was raided would likely have been laughed all the way into the circular file.

I know one instance of a contractor bringing up a backhoe and truck to a Northern community in Canada and digging up the entire cemetery to take down south to be sold as souvenirs. The police arrested members of the community who protested and told them straight out to go away and keep their “filthy mouths” shut, that their ancestors were worthless, and they were lucky they themselves weren’t hunted down “like the animals they were”. It was repulsive but that’s the way it was.

I have no doubt in my mind that these remains were stolen from a similar cemetery or burial site as a prize.

 

[lightofmine99]

Bumping.

 

[airportwoman]

My BFF was raised on a farm that has been in his family for several generations, and back in the 1970s, his father, while plowing, unearthed some human bones. They had to call in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, because it happened outside city limits, and they sifted the area around it for further artifacts. In the end, they determined that the bones belonged to a white man in his 40s who had been dead for more than 100 years. He was buried in a local cemetery in a funeral paid for by the county, and had a stone that said something like "White Man, Found On (the date), his name known but to God."

The Canadian First Nations peoples continue to be treated even worse than the Americans ever treated our Natives, and that's been bad enough.

 

[Puzzleworth]

These kids' remains have probably been turned over to the Flathead (or another local tribe's) government for proper burial by now...or so I hope.