185 - The Stolen Grave of Paula Ream

On August 7th, 1962, nine year old Paula Ream passed away following complications from Cerebral Palsy. Her mother, father and three sisters were devasted by her death and struggled to make it through their grief and pain. On a quiet afternoon, the child was laid to rest beneath a simple stone in Riverside Burial Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There she remained for forty-eight years. Then the unthinkable happened.

In early August of 2010, long after Paula's parents had been laid to rest beside her, an unknown figure crept into the cemetery. Under the cover of darkness, they broke through the earth, cracked open the vault and stole the small casket containing Paula's remains. Despite the shocking and grisly nature of the crime, investigators had few leads to follow.

Originally thought to have been a gruesome prank pulled off by teenagers on Friday the 13th, the investigation would soon point towards practitioners of a ritualistic religion; perhaps voodoo or Palo Mayombe. Despite their efforts to identify the perpetrator and recover Paula's remains, the case quickly grew cold and more than a decade later the answers remain undiscovered.

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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/paula-ream

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