Thornhurst Baby Doe
Unidentified Newborn
Found Sunday, May 23, 1965 in Thornhurst, Lackawanna County.
In 1965, two cottages sat in isolation at the end of rural Bear Run Road in Thornhurst. The Meyers' cottage was used in the winter as a hunting cabin, but was also their summer residence. On Sunday, May 23, 1965, Mr & Mrs Meyers were cleaning the cottage, getting it ready for summer. They hadn't been there since the previous December.
When Mrs Meyers went to clean the outhouse, she found a small, cloth covered bundle on the outhouse floor. She called to her husband, who came out, unwrapped a plaid shirt and pillowcases, revealing the badly decomposed body of an infant.
A ladies cloth belt, about 42" long and 3/4" wide, had been wrapped twice around the baby's neck and tied in a knot. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was strangulation. Decomposition was so severe that the child's gender could only be guessed at through examination of the bone and hip structure. The coroner stated that it appeared to be a full-term male, and he had been alive at birth. He was less than a week old at the time of death and could have been dead from one to five months.
State Troopers interviewed residents throughout the area. The most viable lead led to the woman who owned the other cottage at the end of Bear Run Road, about 100 yards from the outhouse where the child was found. It is possible that she had taken in pregnant women and investigators in 1965 noted that the shirt the baby was found in may have belonged to someone in that family. But the owner and her family, who were all at their permanent residence in Idaho at the time the child was discovered, were unable to shed any light on who the child was. The owner of the other cabin has since died.
Forty-three years later, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, the baby's remains were exhumed from his unmarked grave in Fairview Memorial Park, near Moscow.
Pennsylvania State Police reopened the case, hoping that today's technology may be able to reveal more about the infant than what was possible four decades ago. The remains will be sent to the University of North Texas' Forensic Anthropology Unit for examination, definitive determination of the child's gender and DNA extraction which could, finally, help investigators find out who the child is.
If you have any information about Thornhurst Baby Doe, please contact:
Pennsylvania State Police
Troop R - Dunmore
Criminal Investigations Assessment Unit
570-963-3156
Unidentified Newborn
Found Sunday, May 23, 1965 in Thornhurst, Lackawanna County.
In 1965, two cottages sat in isolation at the end of rural Bear Run Road in Thornhurst. The Meyers' cottage was used in the winter as a hunting cabin, but was also their summer residence. On Sunday, May 23, 1965, Mr & Mrs Meyers were cleaning the cottage, getting it ready for summer. They hadn't been there since the previous December.
When Mrs Meyers went to clean the outhouse, she found a small, cloth covered bundle on the outhouse floor. She called to her husband, who came out, unwrapped a plaid shirt and pillowcases, revealing the badly decomposed body of an infant.
A ladies cloth belt, about 42" long and 3/4" wide, had been wrapped twice around the baby's neck and tied in a knot. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was strangulation. Decomposition was so severe that the child's gender could only be guessed at through examination of the bone and hip structure. The coroner stated that it appeared to be a full-term male, and he had been alive at birth. He was less than a week old at the time of death and could have been dead from one to five months.
State Troopers interviewed residents throughout the area. The most viable lead led to the woman who owned the other cottage at the end of Bear Run Road, about 100 yards from the outhouse where the child was found. It is possible that she had taken in pregnant women and investigators in 1965 noted that the shirt the baby was found in may have belonged to someone in that family. But the owner and her family, who were all at their permanent residence in Idaho at the time the child was discovered, were unable to shed any light on who the child was. The owner of the other cabin has since died.
Forty-three years later, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, the baby's remains were exhumed from his unmarked grave in Fairview Memorial Park, near Moscow.
Pennsylvania State Police reopened the case, hoping that today's technology may be able to reveal more about the infant than what was possible four decades ago. The remains will be sent to the University of North Texas' Forensic Anthropology Unit for examination, definitive determination of the child's gender and DNA extraction which could, finally, help investigators find out who the child is.
If you have any information about Thornhurst Baby Doe, please contact:
Pennsylvania State Police
Troop R - Dunmore
Criminal Investigations Assessment Unit
570-963-3156
Thornhurst Baby Doe
Unidentified Newborn
Found Sunday, May 23, 1965 in Thornhurst, Lackawanna County.
In 1965, two cottages sat in isolation at the end of rural Bear Run Road in Thornhurst. The Meyers' cottage was used in the winter as a hunting cabin, but was also their summer residence. On Sunday, May 23, 1965, Mr & Mrs Meyers were cleaning the cottage, getting it ready for summer. They hadn't been there since the previous December.
When Mrs Meyers went to clean the outhouse, she found a small, cloth covered bundle on the outhouse floor. She called to her husband, who came out, unwrapped a plaid shirt and pillowcases, revealing the badly decomposed body of an infant.
A ladies cloth belt, about 42" long and 3/4" wide, had been wrapped twice around the baby's neck and tied in a knot. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was strangulation. Decomposition was so severe that the child's gender could only be guessed at through examination of the bone and hip structure. The coroner stated that it appeared to be a full-term male, and he had been alive at birth. He was less than a week old at the time of death and could have been dead from one to five months.
State Troopers interviewed residents throughout the area. The most viable lead led to the woman who owned the other cottage at the end of Bear Run Road, about 100 yards from the outhouse where the child was found. It is possible that she had taken in pregnant women and investigators in 1965 noted that the shirt the baby was found in may have belonged to someone in that family. But the owner and her family, who were all at their permanent residence in Idaho at the time the child was discovered, were unable to shed any light on who the child was. The owner of the other cabin has since died.
Forty-three years later, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, the baby's remains were exhumed from his unmarked grave in Fairview Memorial Park, near Moscow.
Pennsylvania State Police reopened the case, hoping that today's technology may be able to reveal more about the infant than what was possible four decades ago. The remains will be sent to the University of North Texas' Forensic Anthropology Unit for examination, definitive determination of the child's gender and DNA extraction which could, finally, help investigators find out who the child is.
If you have any information about Thornhurst Baby Doe, please contact:
Pennsylvania State Police
Troop R - Dunmore
Criminal Investigations Assessment Unit
570-963-3156
Unidentified Newborn
Found Sunday, May 23, 1965 in Thornhurst, Lackawanna County.
In 1965, two cottages sat in isolation at the end of rural Bear Run Road in Thornhurst. The Meyers' cottage was used in the winter as a hunting cabin, but was also their summer residence. On Sunday, May 23, 1965, Mr & Mrs Meyers were cleaning the cottage, getting it ready for summer. They hadn't been there since the previous December.
When Mrs Meyers went to clean the outhouse, she found a small, cloth covered bundle on the outhouse floor. She called to her husband, who came out, unwrapped a plaid shirt and pillowcases, revealing the badly decomposed body of an infant.
A ladies cloth belt, about 42" long and 3/4" wide, had been wrapped twice around the baby's neck and tied in a knot. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was strangulation. Decomposition was so severe that the child's gender could only be guessed at through examination of the bone and hip structure. The coroner stated that it appeared to be a full-term male, and he had been alive at birth. He was less than a week old at the time of death and could have been dead from one to five months.
State Troopers interviewed residents throughout the area. The most viable lead led to the woman who owned the other cottage at the end of Bear Run Road, about 100 yards from the outhouse where the child was found. It is possible that she had taken in pregnant women and investigators in 1965 noted that the shirt the baby was found in may have belonged to someone in that family. But the owner and her family, who were all at their permanent residence in Idaho at the time the child was discovered, were unable to shed any light on who the child was. The owner of the other cabin has since died.
Forty-three years later, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, the baby's remains were exhumed from his unmarked grave in Fairview Memorial Park, near Moscow.
Pennsylvania State Police reopened the case, hoping that today's technology may be able to reveal more about the infant than what was possible four decades ago. The remains will be sent to the University of North Texas' Forensic Anthropology Unit for examination, definitive determination of the child's gender and DNA extraction which could, finally, help investigators find out who the child is.
If you have any information about Thornhurst Baby Doe, please contact:
Pennsylvania State Police
Troop R - Dunmore
Criminal Investigations Assessment Unit
570-963-3156
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