ST. CHARLES, Ill. — Authorities have revealed that a skull found within the walls of an Illinois residence in 1978 belonged to an Indiana teenager who passed away over a century and a half ago. This announcement was made on Thursday by officials from the Kane County Coroner’s Office.

The discovery of the skull came about when the property owner was working on renovations in Batavia. An investigation was initiated by the police, but after some time, the case went cold, leading to the eventual storage of the skull in the Batavia Depot Museum.

The skull remained largely unnoticed until March 2021, when museum staff stumbled upon it during a routine inventory check. They promptly contacted the police, who then forwarded the skull to the coroner’s office for further examination. With the aid of Othram Laboratories, a forensic lab based in Texas that aids in such investigations, forensic experts were able to create a DNA profile from the remains. This profile hinted at the identity of Esther Granger, a 17-year-old who tragically died from complications during childbirth in Merrillville, Indiana, in 1866.

To conclusively identify Granger, investigators compared the DNA profile to that of her great-great-grandson, Wayne Silvar, which confirmed her identity. In a somber but respectful gesture, officials laid the skull to rest in West Batavia Cemetery last August, covering the costs through city funds.

The circumstances surrounding how Granger’s skull ended up in Batavia remain a mystery. Records of her burial show that she was placed to rest in Lake County, Indiana. Kane County Coroner Rob Russell offered a theory suggesting that grave robbers might have exhumed her remains, potentially selling them to medical professionals seeking knowledge of human anatomy.