The red rose is still visible between the hands of a young girl buried 145 years ago in a coffin that was recently discovered underneath a San Francisco house.
Construction workers were remodeling Ericka Karner’s childhood home in the Richmond District when they hit the lead and bronze coffin buried underneath the concrete garage.
The three-foot casket’s two windows revealed the perfectly preserved skin and long blonde hair of the girl, who is believed to have died when she was three years old.
Construction workers found this 145-year-old lead and bronze coffin of a young blonde girl buried under a San Francisco home they were remodeling earlier this month
The casket’s two windows revealed the perfectly preserved skin and long blonde hair of the girl, who is believed to have died when she was three years old
Construction worker Kevin Boylan told KTVU: ‘All the hair was still there. The nails were there. There were flowers – roses, still on the child’s body. It was a sight to see.’
It is believed the girl was one of the 30,000 people who were buried in the city’s Odd Fellows Cemetery, which was active for 30 years before it was forced to shut in 1890.
The bodies were moved to a Colma burial plot in the 1930s to allow for redevelopment – but the little girl in the long white dress with lavender flowers in her hair was left behind.
There were no markings on the purple velvet-lined coffin to identify the child, who is now being called Miranda – a name picked by Karner’s two daughters – after she was discovered on May 9.
Ericka Karner (pictured) found out the child was now her responsibility
But Karner was soon surprised to find out from the medical examiner’s office that the child was now her responsibility.
‘That girl was somebody’s child,’ she said. ‘We had to pick her up.’
‘If people find out she’s lying at a construction site with no one around at night, you can bet somebody is going to steal her. People into the macabre. Into witchcraft.
‘I wanted her out of there.’
It was obvious to Davey that Miranda’s parents loved her very much.
‘Just by looking at the way they dressed her,’ she wrote. ‘Their sorrow was great. We will love her too.’
Construction workers were remodeling Ericka Karner’s childhood home (pictured) in the Richmond District when they made the discovery
It is believed the girl was one of the 30,000 people who were buried in the city’s Odd Fellows Cemetery, which was shut in 1890. The bodies were moved to allow for redevelopment