Mysterious mummies lost in time

(ORDO NEWS) — The mystery of Eva-Miranda: where did the “crystal coffin” with the body of a girl come from under the floor of a garage in San Francisco.

An unusual coffin was found in 2016 in San Francisco during the renovation of an old garage. At first it seemed to the workers that it was a large casket.

With the help of tools, they unscrewed the hatches on the lid and were dumbfounded: under them were two windows of thick glass. Through them, the body of a little girl was visible, which was almost not touched by decay.

This mysterious case became a sensation. Journalists were on duty near the house in the hope of getting an exclusive.

How, 140 years after the death of the “girl from the crystal coffin”, did they manage to find out her real name? And why did the owner of the garage lay out a round sum for the funeral of a child from the 19th century?

Eva Miranda and her “crystal coffin”

The riddle of “The Girl Lost in Time” – American newspapers were full of such headlines in 2016.

The discovery of an old coffin with the body of a child frightened the people of San Francisco and baffled scientists. It took them a long time to uncover the secret of an unusual burial.

The coffin with the body of a little girl was found under the floor of the garage. His owner, Erika Karner, was amazed.

She had no idea that the renovation would lead to a sensational find. The ancient coffin with crystal windows looked like a large rusty box.

“The coffin turned out to be metal, its lower part was attached with metal bolts. Strong enough, they had to be drilled out,” said publicist.

Inside lay the body of a blond girl dressed in a lace dress. Her hair was decorated with lavender petals, and on her chest lay a wreath in the form of a cross of blue bindweeds.

In her hands she held a large flower – purple nightshade.

“The body of the child was embalmed, and it seemed to people that the child was just sleeping.

The experts explained the safety of the body by the good work of those who embalmed the body, as well as by the fact that there was a complete vacuum in the coffin,” said lawyer Konstantin Erokhin.

During the paperwork, the police gave the deceased the name Eva.

And the mistress of the garage, where they found the burial, named the child Miranda. But who really was this girl and how did her coffin end up under Erica Karner’s garage?

The mysterious find interested not only scientists. Volunteers also joined the investigation.

They found old maps of San Francisco and found out that at the end of the 19th century, on the site where Erica Karner’s house now stands, there was the largest cemetery in the city.

At the beginning of the 20th century it was liquidated. Most of the remains were exhumed and reburied in mass graves. But they apparently forgot about the coffin with little Eva-Miranda.

“Volunteers decided to find out the circumstances of her death. They did a great job.

They turned to various funeral agencies, and they needed to find a company that was engaged in the production and manufacture of coffins 140-150 years ago.

But, unfortunately, archival and accounting documents have not been preserved” , – shared the publicist.

Then scientists took tissue and hair samples from the dead girl for DNA analysis. While the examination was being carried out, Erica Karner was engaged in the reburial of Eva-Miranda.

Due to the opening of the airtight coffin, the girl’s body began to decompose. It was impossible to delay the burial.

Since the deceased child was found on the territory of Erica’s private property, then, according to state law, it was she who had to organize a new funeral.

For Eva Miranda, they made a coffin of cherry wood and a granite monument in the shape of a heart.

“On June 4, 2016, the girl was buried under the name Miranda Eva. And already in August of the same year, the DNA results came,” said the publicist.

90 percent of samples taken for DNA analysis contained mold. But this did not stop scientists from revealing the secret of the girl’s origin. Tissue analysis revealed that the baby’s mother was born in the British Isles. Even more interesting were the results of the hair study.

“Hair DNA analysis showed that the child had a protein deficiency and severe malnutrition.

And experts said that most likely this arose due to some kind of illness or due to the amount of medication that the child used,” the lawyer said. Erokhin.

In parallel, volunteers explored the city archives. They studied more than two tens of thousands of documents about the ancient cemetery in San Francisco, and for good reason.

Volunteers found a record of the burial of a two-year-old girl who died due to severe exhaustion. Her name is Edith Howard Cook. The child died in October 1876.

“The circumstances of the girl’s death remained a mystery. No documents have been preserved.

But the inconsolable parents were worried and decided to embalm the girl’s body. What motivated them remains a mystery.”

The parents’ names were Horatio Nelson and Edith Skaufi Cook. Scientists have even found living relatives of the “girl from the crystal coffin.” The program showed a picture of her great-nephew Peter Cook.

He lives in the small port city of Napa, California. The blood relationship was confirmed by DNA testing.

So volunteers and scientists managed to unravel the mystery of the mysterious burial and return the name to the girl who died almost 150 years ago.

“In May 2018, a new tombstone appeared with the inscription “Edith Howard Cook”, who lived for 2 years 10 months 15 days. There was also an inscription: “Once I was lost, but now I was found,” said the publicist.

Rosalia Lombardo: a girl who seems to be sleeping and sometimes “opens her eyes”

Centuries ago, parents often embalmed the bodies of dead children. The famous mummy of a child is kept in the Capuchin catacombs in Palermo.

This is Rosalia Lombardo, the daughter of a Sicilian official who died in 1920 from pneumonia. The girl’s body was so well preserved that she was nicknamed “Sleeping Beauty”.

“This place has become a cult, and many tourists visit it. Some of them, well, mysticists, even say that they hear the girl or see her blink,” lawyer Erokhin said.

In reality, the mummy’s blinking effect is just an optical illusion. It is created by light passing through the narrow windows of the catacombs. The rays fall on the girl’s face in such a way that from the side the eyes seem to be ajar.

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