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Strange Thoughts Whilst Listening to Japanese Music

Debbi Mack
4 min readNov 4, 2024

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Me, several lifetimes years ago, looking … bemused?

Okay, so I see this article online: “An Indiana teen died in 1866. How did her skull end up in an Illinois house’s walls?”

Intriguing. So I read it.

In November 1978, a man in Batavia, Ill., was renovating his house when he knocked down a wall to reveal what appeared to be a human skull lying between the studs.

Almost half a century later — thanks to community fundraising, sophisticated DNA testing and a cooperative descendent — the identity of that skull has finally been confirmed.

It belonged to an Indiana teenager who died from childbirth complications in 1866.

“We now know the skull found in the wall in Batavia as Esther Granger,” Kane County Coroner Rob Russell announced at a press conference on Thursday, surrounded by county officials and standing beside a replica of the skull in a glass box.

Then, there’s a picture of what’s identified in the caption as:

A resin mold of the skull that DNA matched to Granger. Employees at a local museum discovered the skull in 2021, leading to the reopening of the decades-old cold case.

Kane County Coroner’s Office

The skull of resin sits on a cloth the color of a gray flannel suit, its sunken eye sockets gazing…

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Debbi Mack
Debbi Mack

Written by Debbi Mack

New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including the Sam McRae Mystery series. Screenwriter, podcaster, and blogger. My website: www.debbimack.com.

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