[HouseAtreides]

Not sure if anybody outside of the SF-area remembers this, but several years ago a metal coffin containing the body of a young girl was discovered buried under the garage of a San Francisco home. Her name, age, and date of death were all a mystery, and she was dubbed "Miranda Eve". One thing was clear - the style of casket indicated that she died before the 1890s. According to multiple sources, she was "perfectly intact", "near-perfectly intact", "totally undecayed", etc.

Naturally, I assumed her to be in the same beautiful state as Rosalia Lombardo (though it's arguable that Rosalia is no longer in a perfect state, but that's a story for another time). Google image searches and nearly every news article show an image of an angelic-looking little girl slumbering peacefully, which is apparently an artist's rendering of what she would have looked like at the time of her death, rather than a photograph taken of her at the time of her discovery. Many people are fooled by this.

However, if you look very closely on Google images, you can find one picture of the child as she actually looked, with grey skin, sunken eyes, and mold growing all over her face. Naturally, I was quite disappointed and feeling a bit cheated.

Now, to be fair, I don't know when exactly the picture was taken. According to the woman who was instrumental in getting her identified, when the casket was first opened she looked perfect - "as if she had been laid to rest just yesterday" with only a small patch of mold on her jaw and a few white mold spots on her forehead.

Unfortunately the girl laid in her casket in the yard of the house for ten days before the homeowner could figure out what to do with her, and apparently during that time the body started to deteriorate. So it's quite possible that she did indeed look perfect when discovered and that the picture showing her in a not-so-angelic state was taken by investigators after she started to deteriorate. The fact that the picture is found on a science journal website alongside pictures of her hair samples lends to that possibility.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share these pics with you guys here in case you haven't seen them yet.

Edith Howard Cook, who lived during the 19th century, came to public attention when her well-preserved body was discovered in 2016 in San Francisco. The discovery was made during a residential renovation project in the Richmond District, where the former Odd Fellows Cemetery was located before the remains were supposed to have been relocated in the early 20th century.

Her body was remarkably well-preserved, attributed to the hermetically sealed iron coffin in which she was buried, known as a Fisk metallic burial case. This type of coffin was designed to preserve remains and was a luxury item during that period. The preservation was so effective that details like the color of her hair and the flowers laid upon her were still discernible.

Using archival records, researchers were able to identify her as Edith Howard Cook, who died on October 13, 1876, just over a month before her third birthday. The cause of death was identified as undernourishment due to marasmus, which is a severe form of malnutrition.

[Sva]

Nice post! Very interesting

[Zeeta]

Awesome! I remember this, and I'd wondered what she looked like. Too bad no one took a picture before her body deteriorated.

And didn't they put Rosalia in a special container designed to prevent her from decaying?

[Wren]

I've never heard of this, excellent.

[kellyhound]

I luv mysteries like this, thanks for posting

[K53]

[vagabond]

Mummified pretty well, amazing! Too bad they didn't have the presence of mind to call an expert.

[Weiland]

That would've stunk real bad.

[William May]

Normally, at the base of the casket, usually on the bottom end, is a plug, and under that plug is a small tube that can hold info about the dead person inside. I assume they don't always put anything in there, but I think it has been tradition to include it for well over 100 years. I wonder if they looked to see if a casket plug is there, and does it have anything in it.
The other option would be finding out who owned the property through the years, and then checking the newspaper morgue for information that might turn up regarding that family. People didn't just go dig a hole and stick a family member in it any old place. At least, not as late as the 1890's.

[1776]

Unfortunately the girl laid in her casket in the yard of the house for ten days before the homeowner could figure out what to do with her

Best place they could think to leave a corpse was laying in the front yard? What was wrong with the hole in the garage until things got figure out