NM NM - Silver City, Unknown, UP136834, found among fake bones in art exhibit, Nov’23

[lightofmine99]

Silver City Doe (2023)
a.k.a "One Million Bones Doe”
UP136834 (NU)​

Circumstances:
Travelers visited the "One Million Bones" at Bear Mountain Lodge and found skull mixed in with fake bones. (per NamUs).

Spoiler: CASE INFORMATION

Case Numbers:

• NamUs: UP136834
• Doe Network: N/A
• ME/C: 2023-08352
• NCMEC: N/A

Overview:

• Location: Silver City, New Mexico. (Grant Co.)
• Date Body Found: November 20, 2023.
• NamUs Created: January 17, 2025.
• Tribal Land: N/A
• PMI: N/A
• State of Remains: Not recognizable.
  • Partial skeletal parts only.
• Cause of Death: N/A

Physical:

• Sex: UNKNOWN
• Race/Ethnicity: UNKNOWN
• Age: UNKNOWN
• Height: CANNOT ESTIMATE
• Weight: CANNOT ESTIMATE
• Hair: UNKNOWN
• Eye: UNKNOWN

Identifiers:

• Dentals: UNKNOWN
• DNA: UNKNOWN
• Prints: UNKNOWN
• Marks / Features: N/A

Personal Effects:

• Clothing: NONE
• Jewelry: NONE
• Add'l Items: NONE

Links:

• NamUs: UP136834 (ARCHIVE)
• Doe Network: N/A

Notes:

The “One Million Bones” exhibit at Bear Mountain Lodge was originally in Washington D.C. and was moved to Silver City in 2018. The exhibit featuring ceramic bones is an acknowledgement of ongoing genocides in Sudan, Syria, Burma, Congo, and South Sudan. People are currently invited to make their own bones to contribute to the exhibit.

LINK / ARCHIVE (02/12/25)

** This case is being investigated by the Grant County Sheriff's Office. **​

 

[iulia]

NamUs entry has been updated:

Biological Sex Female
Estimated Age Group Adult - Pre 30
Estimated Age Range (Years) 15-28

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[iulia]

Her NamUs page has been removed.

 

[lightofmine99]

Her NamUs page has been removed.

I hope we get more information about this.

 

[The4TierBridge]

Is it possible that somebody used the ability to add your own art to dispose of a body?

 

[The4TierBridge]

Wanted to add that I'd normally find something like that a bit unrealistic, but there was a really fast turn around from NamUs creation to identification so (in my opinion) the DNA must have matched to somebody already on file.

 

[lightofmine99]

Is it possible that somebody used the ability to add your own art to dispose of a body?

That was my initial thought when I first saw this on NamUs.

 

[iulia]

I wonder if New Mexico has an initiative to help identify the UPs in their state? I noticed a pattern of adding and sometimes removing bunches of cases the same day. I thought maybe the case owner doesn't log into NamUs too often so they add/remove numerous cases when they do, but the cases are from various counties. Just yesterday they removed 13 UPs from 6 different counties. Whatever may be happening there, I am glad to see all that activity.

 

[FromGermany1]

When I recently made a report of my stolen purse and identifications online, I later wasn't able to delete these things online after getting back parts of it (found in a trash can).

But that's Germany of course and only the locale lost property office. Here it's very difficult to undo reports online, for example also re Health insurance.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

. Just yesterday they removed 13 UPs from 6 different counties

Were you able to also tell if any missing persons listed in NM were removed at the same time?

 

[iulia]

Were you able to also tell if any missing persons listed in NM were removed at the same time?

There was none, unfortunately. It's not too often that MPs from NM are removed from NamUs and about half the resolved MP cases are unpublished ones.

 

[bettyboop]

@The4TierBridge and @lightofmine99 , I also thought of someone using the exhibit as a means of disposing of a body!! But I believe our interest in true crime leads us to that conclusion. It's nice to know that NM is on top of these things from what some of the posters are finding. I am following this thread and am interested in finding out who this is and their story. JMO MOO