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In March 2010, while preparing a new burial vault at Esmond-Evergreen Cemetery, sexton Tait Shellenbarger made an unexpected discovery in a plot believed to be vacant when he unearthed a human cranium.
Working with law enforcement and the forensic department at Michigan State University, investigators eventually recovered 98 percent of a human skeleton along with several artifacts, including casket hardware, fragments of the original casket, nails, remnants of fabric, two porcelain buttons, and several iron pieces arranged in a cross-like shape near the hands. Once it was determined the remains were archaeological in nature rather than evidence of foul play, the effort to identify the man began…