Sanford officials to unveil latest in mystery of skeletal remains found in 2017
SANFORD, Maine — The investigation into the true identity of the Woodlawn Cemetery Jane Doe is complete, according to Paul Auger, the Sanford High School history teacher who has spent the past six years trying to solve the mystery.
“I’m glad the city agreed that we wanted to do the right thing and try to find the identity,” Auger said on Monday.
The mystery centers on skeletal remains and coffin parts that a member of a construction crew found in 2017 while the site of the former Emerson School on Main Street was being prepared for the construction of a new Cumberland Farms, which exists there today.
With the investigation complete, has the mystery been solved? Stay tuned. According to Auger, he and city officials will discuss the case of the Jane Doe of Woodlawn Cemetery during a special press conference at the Sanford Police Department this Wednesday, March 1, at 3 p.m.
Jennifer Randolph, of the DNA Doe Project, the organization enlisted to help investigate the mystery, also will be at the press conference.
Auger reached out to the DNA Doe Project early last year, after he and others had exhausted all avenues in their own investigation. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to using genetic genealogy to identify the remains of John Does and Jane Does. The group is comprised of volunteers who share their background in genetics and genealogy to solve the mysteries.
During an interview in September, Randolph expressed confidence that her organization was close to identifying the remains.
Working off the DNA of a molar and delving into all sorts of documents – wills, deeds, newspapers, headstones, censuses, ledgers, diaries, and vital records – Randolph and her team were able to determine the likely age, gender, and ethnicity of the Woodlawn Cemetery Jane Doe.
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Randolph said in September that her organization believed the bones belonged to a young female, likely of Scottish heritage, who died sometime in the 1890s. The female was likely a member of a family that had been settled in the Sanford area for generations. She was likely the great-great-great aunt to quite a few people who are likely in and around Sanford today.
Scott Reinert, of PM Construction, discovered those bones and “shiny casket parts” as he excavated for a potential water line for the new Cumberland Farms at the site nearly six years ago. Weeks earlier, crews had demolished the historic Emerson School to clear the site for the construction of the store. Even before the project began, Auger approached the workers and told them they should not be “terribly surprised” if they managed to dig up precisely what Reinert later found.
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After all, the site was once a graveyard. At one point in the early part of the twentieth century, the town relocated the bodies to the newly opened Oakdale Cemetery on what is now Twombley Road. A playground for Emerson School students was built in the cemetery's place.
But if you've seen the 1982 horror classic “Poltergeist,” you can guess by what happened. One of Woodlawn’s dearly departed did not make the trip to Oakdale. For decades, as schoolchildren played during recess and swung on swings six feet above, the remains of the Woodlawn Cemetery Jane Doe waited to be discovered.
Last fall, Auger said that identifying the remains has been his and the city’s goal from the beginning. He called the town’s failure to relocate the coffin and remains to Oakdale Cemetery a “terrible oversight.” He said Sanford had an obligation to try to identify the remains and provide them with a proper, dignified burial.
Auger repeated as much on Monday.
“Everyone has value,” Auger said. “Everyone has a story. Everyone has an arc of life.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Sanford officials to unveil mystery of skeletal remains found in 2017
