A coffin has been discovered with the corpse of a young girl,
buried 145 years ago still gripping a red rose underneath a San Francisco home.
Construction workers were remodeling Ericka Karner's childhood home in the
Richmond District when they hit the lead-and-bronze coffin buried underneath
the concrete garage. The 3-foot casket's two windows revealed the perfectly preserved
skin and long blonde hair of the girl, who is believed to have died when she
was three-years-old.
It is believed the girl was one of the 30,000 people who were
buried in the city's Odd Fellows Cemetery, which was active for 30 years before
it was forced to shut in 1890. The bodies were moved to a Colma burial plot in the 1920s to allow
for redevelopment - but the little girl in the long white dress and lavender
flowers in her hair was left behind. There were no markings on the coffin to identify the girl, who is
now being called Miranda after she was discovered on May 9.
But Karner was soon surprised to find out from the medical
examiner's office that the child was now her responsibility. The city refused to take custody of the body, but the problems
only continued when Karner tried to have the girl reburied. Karner was told she needed a death certificate to obtain a burial
permit for the girl. A Colma undertaker was willing to take the body - for a
cool $7,000. An East Bay archaeological company's price was even steeper
at $22,000.
Meanwhile, the coffin was laying in Karner's backyard, the seal
broken and time running out. 'It didn't seem right,' Karner told the San Francisco
Chronicle. 'The city decided to move all these bodies 100 years ago, and they
should stand behind their decision.'
Karner, who is currently living in Idaho with her family while the
house is remodeled, said she felt awful as a mother thinking of the little girl
lying alone in her backyard. She considered the girl 'part of her family now'.
City Hall finally put Karner in touch with someone who could help,
connecting her to the Garden of Innocence, an organization that provides
burials for unidentified children.
Founder, Elissa Davey, who was able to secure the funds needed to
have the coffin picked up and temporarily stored in a mortuary refrigerator in
Fresno, said they needed to do the 'right thing'. 'That girl was somebody's child,' she said. 'We had to pick her
up.' 'If people find out she's lying at a construction site with no one
around at night, you can bet somebody is going to steal her. People into the
macabre. Into witchcraft.' 'I wanted her out of there.'
Davey hopes to find out Miranda's true identify and rebury her
this summer, she told CBS San Francisco. And Davey has hired her niece to build a second maple coffin that
will be large enough to hold Miranda in the casket where she was originally
laid to rest. 'I don't want her disturbed anymore,' Davey said. 'She's been
disturbed enough.'
Source: San Francisco Chronicle/Mail Online
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