Skeleton Stories - Season 1, Episode 12 - Buried Secrets - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NARRATOR: Renovating an old house in Philadelphia, construction workers are stunned to unearth 16
tiny coffins in the basement. Many questions come through your mind. When were these bodies put there?
Why were they put there? Who put them there? NARRATOR: Now, authorities are counting
on forensic anthropologist Dr. Tom Crist and his wife Molly to get to the bottom
of this mysterious burial. How did these children die? Why are they here, all buried together?
We don't know where they came from or who they belong to, so that was what we had to find out.
NARRATOR: Then detectives believe that this seemingly ordinary father of two may actually be a ruthless killer.
He was very withdrawn, very quiet, never look you in the eye, always looked down.
And Dr. Beth Murray is determined to give them the proof they need to make sure he stays behind bars.
To think about a monster that can live and walk among us, that's really frightening to me.
[CRYING BABY] NARRATOR: Philadelphia, a city steeped in rich history, where the present day seems to coexist
peacefully with the past. But sometimes, the past reemerges in unexpected ways. In March 2004, construction workers
are busy renovating a 19th century rowhouse on Carpenter Street in the city's renowned southside.
Down in the basement, a worker is excavating the dirt to lower the level of the floor.
And in doing so, he started to hit some wood. NARRATOR: He carefully scraped the dirt away with his shovel
and uncovers a mysterious wooden box. Intrigued, the worker slowly opens it and is
startled by what he sees. Inside are what would appear to be tiny bones. That's when the call out.
If someone calls you and says, we just found a coffin in the basement where we were digging,
you'd say, yeah, sure. So first, you're in denial. NARRATOR: But the developer, Tony Rufo,
quickly realizes that this is no hoax. It was a coffin. NARRATOR: Shocked, he immediately calls 911.
The question on everyone's mind, is this a homicide? When the medical examiner arrives,
he studies the remains. They appear to be old bones. But how old he is unable to say for sure.
For everyone involved, this mysterious discovery raises many pressing questions.
Should it be or shouldn't it be here? You know, all these million thoughts go through your head.
NARRATOR: To answer these questions, Tony Rufo calls forensic anthropologist Dr. Tom Crist,
a professor at Utica College. He's an expert in bones and has extensive experience dealing
with historical human remains. As a forensic anthropologist, my role is, really, to give a voice to people
whose names we may not know but who have stories to tell us. And they're important stories about the past
but also about how we got to be where we are today. NARRATOR: Dr. Crist arrives at the scene,
determined to uncover what mystery lies inside this forgotten coffin. But he is not alone.
What's a little unusual here is that I work with my wife. NARRATOR: Dr. Crist's wife, Molly Crist,
is now a professor of physical therapy at Utica College. But she began her career as an anthropologist.
The couple has been working together since 1993. What's going on? It's always the subject of taboo.
Don't ever work with your spouse. But I think that it worked so well for us because our relationship started
as a working relationship. NARRATOR: Though Dr. Crist's specialty is bones, he begins this case by studying something else, the coffin.
That's a six sided coffin. That's a hexagonal coffin. NARRATOR: This distinctive style helps
him narrow down a specific date range for the burial. These coffins were very common from the 1750s
through the 1780s. NARRATOR: From this, Dr. Crist concludes that this coffin must
have been buried here during the colonial period or slightly thereafter. For over two centuries, it stayed
hidden in this dark, damp tomb, undisturbed until now. But this is about to change.
Gently, Dr. Crist pries open the lid of the coffin. Everything just stopped at that point.
NARRATOR: Nestled inside is a collection of tiny bones, human bones. I can see just a little tooth or two.
And they're not even formed yet. They're down inside the jaws. Wow. That indicates a very, very young
child and probably a newborn. We all just stood there and just looked at it and said, oh, wow.
NARRATOR: But there is an even greater surprise in store for the Crists. We excavated around it, and we lifted it out and--
Got it. And the next thing we knew, we found another. Oh, here's the edge. NARRATOR: The second coffin is the same shape
and size as the first one and had been buried directly underneath it. And once again, the coffin houses the same grim treasure.
Again, we were like, oh, little baby. Many questions come through your mind. When were these bodies put there?
Why were they put there? Who put them there? This was really a mystery. NARRATOR: And where there are two coffins,
there could be more. We really had no idea how many could have been buried underneath this house.
There was no way to know it except digging up the basement floor. NARRATOR: But suddenly, disaster strikes.
I believe we were in the middle of a monsoon. NARRATOR: Philadelphia is hit by a violent storm that pounds
the city with torrential rain. It had been raining for three days, and it rained for the next three days.
It was quite-- quite a mess. NARRATOR: The basement is soon flooded. The water itself could have destroyed
the coffins and the human remains that were within them. NARRATOR: In a desperate race against the clock,
Dr. Crist and Molly call on aid of their forensic students for help. I guess the sense of urgency was elevated.
We also had no idea how many burials we were going to be dealing with. NARRATOR: As the team digs frantically
over the course of five long days, the coffin count continues to rise. What we discovered were 16 infants and children
in a single burial trench. Stacked on top of one another and side-by-side. So the mystery deepened.
NARRATOR: Faced with 16 coffins and 16 skeletons, the questions multiply. How did these children die?
Why are they here, all buried together? Is it an epidemic? Was it a fire? Was there any foul play involved?
We didn't know what to think. NARRATOR: To get to the bottom of this mystery, Dr. Crist must bring the coffins back
to his lab to carefully examine the bones inside each one. Coming up, Dr. Crist delves into Philadelphia's past,
searching for clues that might identify these forgotten children. But what he uncovers will shock even this season scientist.
Many of them never had a chance at all. It was almost a death sentence. NARRATOR: And then Dr. Beth Murray
is determined to bring some sense of peace to the family of this young girl. My work is what I have to offer them.
NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns. NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Tom
Crist just stepped back in time, back to colonial Philadelphia. He and his wife Molly are busy examining the remains of 16
infants and children, recently excavated from the basement of a row house in that city's
historic district. Just the fact that there are children involved and then so many buried all at once together really made this a highly
unusual situation. We don't know where they came from or who they belong to, so that was what we had to find out.
NARRATOR: As he opens the first coffin, Dr. Crist gets a good look at the bones,
and he's surprised by what he sees. The skeletal remains are all here, and they really are in such great shape.
Every single small bone, every tooth, was present and really very nicely preserved.
NARRATOR: It is uncommon to find infant remains this well preserved because baby bones
are soft and not fully formed. They're not really hard enough to resist the rigors of being
underground for very long. NARRATOR: But the reason for this unusually good preservation is readily apparent.
Each one was caked with a little bit of mud that had seeped into the coffins that protected them.
NARRATOR: For five days, Dr. Crist and his wife meticulously sort and cleaned the bones.
It is very hard to work with the remains of infants and children because you realize that their lives
were snuffed out so early. NARRATOR: For Molly, their work is a way of giving something
back to these unknown children. We try to think of it as giving them a place in history, putting the pieces
together so that they can rest in peace. NARRATOR: The first step is to try and determine
the age of each child. But here, Dr. Crist faces a particular challenge. What makes an infant's skeleton so
different from an adult's is that it has many, many more parts to it. NARRATOR: A baby's born with over 300
soft bones, many of which fuse together as the child grows older. This process continues into early adulthood,
leaving the adult with 206 bones. So you may have 300 or 400 different skeletal elements to account for when you have a newborn.
NARRATOR: Dr. Crist focuses on a few specific bones as a guide. For instance, we can look at the temporal bone,
which is the bone that's actually underneath your earlobe. In the fetus, the temporal bone is
in three separate pieces, which fuse together once the child is born. If we find a child whose temporal bones are in three
different portions, they haven't fused together yet, we know that it's a premature infant.
NARRATOR: Using this method, Doctor Crist can see right away that this particular child
managed to survive its birth. If this was a child who had not yet been born, that ring wouldn't be attached, but it is.
NARRATOR: But there is another method that can be used to determine age. The most accurate information we get,
though, is looking at the teeth. What we look for is the level of development of each tooth,
compare that to tables based on children of known age, and then we can estimate with very good accuracy, usually
within months, if not weeks, how old that child is. NARRATOR: Using these various techniques,
Doctor Crist is able to narrow down the age range of the 16 children. We had premature babies, newborns, and young infants.
NARRATOR: But that's all they know, and many questions remain. What tragedy could have killed such a large group of infants?
And how on earth did they wind up in the basement of this ordinary townhouse? Doctor Crist is anxious to know more about these children,
more than the bones alone can tell him. You really have to become a history detective.
NARRATOR: Leaving Molly to continue analyzing the remains, Doctor Crist visits Philadelphia's Archival
Library for clues to this historical riddle. After several fruitless hours of research,
he finally uncovers a map of Philadelphia, dating back to 1830. On this particular map, the location
where we had discovered these coffins in the basement, there was a number five. And in the index of that map, number five
went with the Philadelphia Almshouse Burial Ground. At that moment, we knew that it was an Almshouse Cemetery.
NARRATOR: Dr. Crist now knows where these children came from. The first Philadelphia almshouse, or poorhouse,
opened in 1732, Ostensibly, to care for the poor and the sick of the city. Life in the almshouses was not pleasant.
Primarily, you're dealing with severe overcrowding. There weren't enough beds. There weren't enough rooms to go around for all the poor people
that needed to be housed. They were cesspools of disease, places where the unwanted and the unclean of the city
were shuttled off to be housed almost as prisoners. NARRATOR: Children made up a large part
of the almshouse population. Historical records show that on an average day in colonial Philadelphia, 5 to 15
newborns and infants were found abandoned on the streets of the city. Many of them would be delivered anonymously
to the almshouse itself, hoping that, in some respects, care could be given to those children.
But very, very few of them ever survived their stay at the almshouse. Their lives, really, were so short.
They never had a chance to contribute at all or see the world around them. They simply never grew up.
NARRATOR: As eerie as it might be to discover an old cemetery hidden under a rowhouse, it is not that surprising given
Philadelphia's long history. There are numerous people buried underneath the streets
of Philadelphia. NARRATOR: As the city's population grew, many cemeteries were paved over to allow for new construction.
These rowhomes were built directly on top of them and didn't disturb them at all.
NARRATOR: But with the children's identity revealed, some disturbing questions still remain.
What could have caused their multiple deaths in such a short period of time? Why were they all buried together?
Was it an epidemic? Was there any foul play involved? We had no idea. We really were at a loss at that point.
NARRATOR: Coming up, Dr. Crist makes a chilling discovery. Here we go. As we were examining these bones,
we could see several cut marks made by a very sharp, thin blade. NARRATOR: As Dr. Crist stumbled across a vicious murder
over two centuries old? And later, Dr. Murray is stunned when she is forced to confront a killer.
I would like to say I sat in the back of this police cruiser. But, in fact, I hid.
NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns. Forensic anthropologist, Dr. Tom Crist,
is on a quest to uncover any evidence that might help explain why these 18th century
children died. It's important that I be able to tell their stories as best I can for them so that we don't forget that those people were
here, too. NARRATOR: In order for Dr. Crist to bring their stories to light, he must examine the bones for any indication
of what might have killed them. Several the children did show some evidence of infection.
NARRATOR: Signs of this infection are especially noticeable on the parietal lobe, the main side
bone of the skull. You can see all this porous bone here which suggests some sort of infection
of the covering of the brain. NARRATOR: When Dr. Crist compares this bone to the same bone from a healthy child,
the contrast is striking. This one shows the healthy appearance, sort of just this brown color, very flat.
And this one shows the bone growth all, in this area here, clearly there is an infection going on that's affecting
the inner part of this bone. But it certainly would have had had impacts on the brain.
NARRATOR: Consulting historical records, Dr. Crist begins to catalog the many diseases that killed people
in 18th century Philadelphia. These 16 children could have died of tuberculosis,
infectious diseases, diarrheal diseases that they got from very bad water, from contaminated food.
It was almost a death sentence to be sent to the almshouse. [INAUDIBLE] NARRATOR: It's clear that several different communicable
diseases could have caused the deadly markings on the inside of the skull. But just as the Crists are zeroing
in on infection as the likely culprit, they make another unexpected discovery. The most mysterious aspect of this project
wasn't what we found. It's what was missing. Three of the children were missing their heads.
The three oldest children were missing their skulls, their jaws, and the first two vertebra of their neck.
It's shocking to see it right in front of you. This really deepened the mystery.
Is this foul play? Was there some sort of murder involved? Was there a serial killer in the almshouse?
And what could account for these three children, missing their heads? NARRATOR: Dr. Crist takes a closer
look at the severed neck bones of one of the three victims. We could see several cut marks in the third cervical vertebra
in the middle of the neck. Two cut marks over here on this side, this flat area.
These were cut marks made by a very sharp, thin blade like a scalpel. NARRATOR: This is a critical finding.
The specific type of cut mark indicates that this is surgical in nature and not the result of violent trauma.
This was not done in a violent way. There was no evidence of crushing to the bones of the neck.
NARRATOR: But it's where this surgical cut was made on the spinal column that offers the biggest clue.
We know that that's exactly the place you'd go in with a scalpel if you were going to remove
an individual's head for anatomical study or for medical study. NARRATOR: This is a crucial piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
And once again, the key to solving it lies in understanding the past. Back then, in the 1700s, students of medicine
were responsible for finding their own cadavers, their own corpses to dissect, to learn the different parts
of the body. Where the bodies came from was always questionable. They would first go to the bodies of criminals,
and those were allowed to be used for dissection. As the medical schools increased in number,
there were not enough hanged criminals to go around. NARRATOR: This high demand for corpses led to drastic
and often illegal measures. Physicians and their students would raid the local cemeteries
and burial grounds to recover the bodies of freshly dead individuals. They were body snatchers.
NARRATOR: But robbing graves for bodies was both risky and insufficient. What physicians and their students needed
was access to a steady supply of cadavers that no one would miss. Almshouses turned out to be the perfect solution.
Infants, children, adults would die. And they would be wheeled over into the anatomical theater,
where they would be dissected in front of medical students, who would pay for tickets to watch the autopsy or the dissection.
The poor living alms houses had very little choice. And in many cases, they were terrified
of dying in these almshouses because they knew. They knew that their bodies would be used in dissection.
There was no one there to advocate for them. The poor really had no one to stand up for them.
NARRATOR: Armed with this last piece of forensic evidence, Dr. Crist is now ready to reconstruct what
he believes happened to these children in the Philadelphia almshouse. Sometime between 1750 and 1780, 16 children
came to live together at the Philadelphia almshouse. They never had a chance at all in life.
They were born to poor families, born to single mothers. NARRATOR: Plagued by overcrowding and lack
of hygiene, the almshouse was a ripe environment for the spread of infection and disease.
These children would have been especially vulnerable. It's very likely that these 16 children could have been one
week's worth of the deceased. NARRATOR: The cadavers of three of the children almost probably handed over to physicians
and their medical students. The heads of these three children were removed for study or for practice surgery.
The rest of their bodies were put in their coffins, buried with the other newborns and infants in the grave
under what later became the basement of this rowhome. NARRATOR: As a scientist and mother,
Molly Crist has mixed feelings about what was done to these innocent children. Certainly, in the history of medicine,
children need to be studied. I mean, that's how we learn. But it's just different when it's a child,
to think that, back at those times, someone would have actually had the intestinal fortitude
to take the head off a newborn baby for study. I would like to think that it was done for only
good purposes, that physician maybe did learn something or that his medical students did.
NARRATOR: Authorities in Philadelphia have granted Dr. Crist three years to study and document
the children's remains, after which time he will reenter them in a historic cemetery somewhere
in the city. Tom, he's really incredible. There just aren't that many people out there that have the ability to do
the things that he has done. The closure for me will be when we rebury them and give
them rest, finally, in a place where, hopefully, they won't be disturbed again. I think they deserve that.
NARRATOR: Up next, forensic anthropologist, Dr. Beth Murray, is shocked to learn where
the rest of this young girl's remains are buried. I didn't expect to pull up to a house
with a white picket fence. That really kind of blew my mind, I have to say. NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns.
[STRUGGLING] NARRATOR: It's a peaceful day as a park ranger makes his rounds at a nature
preserve in central Ohio. But the quiet of these woods is soon disrupted by a shocking discovery.
At the foot of a tree, the ranger spots something white on the ground. It's a human skull.
Shaken, he immediately calls in the county police. And there was no visible skin I could see on the skull.
This skull was white in color. NARRATOR: David Steinbrunner and his fellow detectives
quickly search the surrounding park for more clues. But the only additional bones they have related
are a couple of vertebrae. DAVID STEINBRUNNER: All we knew at the time is we had a skull.
We didn't know if it was ancient, maybe the 1800s from an old burial ground, or if it was current.
It's in the past few weeks. We just don't know at that time. NARRATOR: To figure out who this is
and how their skull got here, detectives enlist the expertise of a forensic anthropologist,
Dr. Elizabeth Murray. People think of the skeleton as something static, unchanging, that all skeletons are alike.
But in the hands of a forensic anthropologist, there's so much information there
that could otherwise be lost. NARRATOR: The investigators send the remains to Dr. Murray's lab at the College of Mount St. Joseph.
There are a couple of vertebrae from the very top portion of the neck that are associated with it,
a little bit of hair. There's some brain matter that's still kind of losing from the skull itself.
NARRATOR: The first crucial fact Dr. Murray attempts to gather from the skull is the rough date
of the victim's death. Decomposition has a clock of its own, and the time can be estimated by examining which
insects are helping break down the body's last remaining tissues. The flies come in first and have their own life cycle.
Beetles come in in a second wave, and there's a number of species of beetles involved as well.
The type of beetles that invest a corpse are called sarcophagic, sarco meaning flesh, phagic meaning eating.
They're literally flesh eating beetles. Given the presence of the beetles and the condition of the skull, where there's very little
soft tissue left, I would estimate the time since death on the order of maybe one to three months.
NARRATOR: Now that Dr. Murray has determined that she's dealing with a recent death, she turns
her attention to the next pressing question, who could this be? To determine this person's key characteristics,
she needs to piece together a biological profile. But first, the skull must be cleaned.
Right away, the more delicate structuring of the skull and the subtle brow ridge
tells Dr. Murray the likely sex of the victim. And the anatomy of the facial skeleton suggests the ancestry.
Based on my analysis, The. Skull appears to be that of a Caucasian female. NARRATOR: A common means of reckoning age from the skull
is by examining the victim's teeth. The teeth were in beautiful shape. There is very little wear on the molars,
indicating a lifetime of chewing. I think this is most likely a young adult. NARRATOR: Now that investigators know this is most likely
a young Caucasian female, they can start hunting for the victim's identity. Various people did call in, family members
that were saying, oh my god, we've had a family member missing. Could this be the person?
And eventually, I got down to just one person, that one victim that matches her analysis, somebody that was
missing for two months, somebody who was a female Caucasian, who was young and had brown hair.
NARRATOR: The missing woman's name is Carrie Erickson, aged 23. Her friends haven't seen or heard from her since March.
As they continue their investigation, detectives learn more about Carrie's difficult upbringing.
Her life was no day in the park, so to speak. She was bouncing from foster home to foster home since the age of five.
And when she turned 18, she was kicked out of the foster program and turned to the streets.
Because of that, she became addicted to crack and started doing prostitution to pay for her habit.
A comparison with Carrie's dental records quickly confirms the skull belongs to Carrie Erickson.
After a lifetime of trouble, she has been reduced to a skull and a few vertebrae
in Beth Murray's lab. It saddens me to see how often those kind of women wind up in the morgue.
NARRATOR: Coming up, even after hundreds of gruesome cases, Dr. Murray is shocked by what she learns next.
To think about a monster that can live and walk among us, that's really frightening to me.
NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns. NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray
is busy examining the skull of Carrie Erickson, found in the park a few days earlier.
Investigators are counting on Dr. Murray to figure out how this 23-year-old met her tragic end.
Examining the base of the spinal column, Dr. Murray discovers what could be a vital clue.
The first two vertebrae, very high in the neck, that sit just behind the jaw bone,
were fairly badly fractured. They were not distinct. They were not sharp. They were kind of crushed fractures.
The fractures were suggestive of some kind of a blow, one or more blows, that decapitated the individual.
NARRATOR: Dr. Murray cannot be certain the fractures to the vertebrae killed Carrie.
But they do hold an important clue. The reason the perpetrator cut off the head of the victim
was a very real attempt to separate the head from the body, thinking that the head
had more recognizable features. NARRATOR: Based on Dr. Murray's experience, such drastic measures point to only one possibility--
homicide. She reports her findings to investigators. With this information, detective Steinbrunner begins
a manhunt for Carrie's killer. His lead to include an ex-boyfriend, who Carrie alleged had once abused her.
According to police records, she had filed two domestic violence reports against him.
The other suspect is a local pimp. According to police records, Carrie's sister reported that he once threatened to kill Carrie.
They had a lot of active suspects. Is it a John? Is it a family member? NARRATOR: For weeks investigators,
tirelessly follow up on numerous leads. But nothing really fit in. They all had good alibis.
NARRATOR: Carrie's ex-boyfriend and the pimp are both exonerated. But just when the case is going to go cold,
police come across an unlikely suspect who peak their suspicions. He is the married father of two small children
and a devout Catholic. His name is Danny Hobart. DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Danny Hobart, from all indication,
is a very educated, intelligent person. He was very religious, read scripture at the local church.
NARRATOR: But Hobart had his share of unsettling characteristics as well. His co-workers said that he was very withdrawn,
very quiet, never look you in the eye, always looked down. NARRATOR: Two months earlier, Hobart had been caught trying
to strangle another prostitute. Now, investigators wonder if he might be connected
to Carrie's death as well. By the grace of God, a park ranger happened to drive by,
sees the car. Something's not right. Finds this woman being strangled. The culprit, the man, strangling this woman is Mr. Hobart.
And at that time, Mr. Hobart is taken into custody. NARRATOR: He is placed in a neighboring county jail
while he awaits trial for attempted murder. Detective Steinbrunner puts Hobart at the top of his suspect list.
And the investigators soon learn something else that heightens their suspicions about Hobart.
He thought the problem in the world were prostitutes. He felt the world would be a better place if he
rid the world of prostitutes. NARRATOR: Investigators search Hobart's car. What they find convinces them they
might be on the right track. It was both fascinating to our case and both horrific
for the things that were found in that car. NARRATOR: According to police reports,
the following items were found in Hobart's car. There were two books, involving serial killers,
a [INAUDIBLE] with the wire. There was a syringe in the car, antifreeze found in the car
under the front seat. NARRATOR: But when the investigators opened the lid of the trunk, they find the most
horrific evidence of all-- a pool of coagulative blood. So that got us to wondering, could this be Carrie's blood?
NARRATOR: Investigators collect a sample of the blood and send it to the FBI laboratory for comparison
to Carrie Erickson's teeth. Two weeks later, DNA test results come back. It's a perfect match.
This blood belonged to Carrie Erickson. To think about a chameleon, a monster that can live and walk
among us yet have that side so successfully hidden, that's really frightening to me.
NARRATOR: Danny Hobart is charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of Carrie Erickson.
The trial is set for March 7th, 1995. But three days before the trial begins, prosecutor Leon Daidone gets a phone call
from Hobart's lawyer. To avoid facing a trial, Hobart wants to negotiate a plea bargain.
Daidone since one paramount condition. We would not entertain or do any type of plea agreement
whatsoever unless we got him to show us where the body was so that we can return
her body back to her family. NARRATOR: Coming up, investigators turned to Dr. Murray again.
But this time, it means coming face-to-face with the killer. I didn't really want to see him,
and, even more importantly, I didn't want him to see me. NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories returns.
NARRATOR: On March 15th, 1995, detectives removed Danny Hobart from his prison cell.
To avoid going to trial, Hobart has agreed to show police where he buried the body of Carrie Erickson, a prostitute
he strangled and decapitated. We wanted to get her body home. Her family needs closure.
NARRATOR: Investigators, again, turned to Dr. Murray for help. I got a call that said, today, we're
going to get him out of jail, and he's going to show us where, in his backyard, he buried the remains.
NARRATOR: It's a warm morning when the detectives pull up to Hobart's house. Forensic anthropologist, Dr. Elizabeth Murray,
is ready to do her part. You hear these things about this monster, I didn't expect to pull up to a house
with a white picket fence. And I know that he lived there with his wife and his two kids, that really kind of blew my mind,
I have to say. NARRATOR: Police lead Hobart around the yard as he tries to remember exactly where he buried
the rest of Carrie's body. And then he looks up to the sky, and he was handcuffed in the front.
And he said, Dear Lord, let this be the spot where I put her. NARRATOR: The detectives get ready to start
digging around the area. But Dr. Murray stops them. I said let's not waste our energy here.
I think that we could probably narrow down the exact location. And I remember thinking to myself,
they probably think that, you know, I'm goofy. But I knew Locard's principle. It's a principle of forensic science that says,
there's always evidence left behind, always. NARRATOR: Dr. Murray gets down on her hands and knees
to closely examine the soil surface because she knows the ground holds the evidence she's looking for,
a specific area of disturbed soil where the grave might be. It's very easy to feel on my hands and knees,
smooth as glass, bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, smooth as glass again. And I said, let's start here.
And they hit upon a little crest of something brown sticking out of the soil. And I said, stop, stop.
That's her. NARRATOR: Slowly, the small crest is exposed. Could this be Carrie? The prosecutor looked at me and he said, uh,
are you sure that's not a root? And I said, no, that's her. NARRATOR: Working with extreme care,
Dr. Murray begins to systematically excavate the remains. To be able to carve those remains out of the soil
and find a truncated neck and no skull present was certainly consistent with this being our victim,
Carrie. NARRATOR: After two long years, the rest of Carrie Erickson's remains have been found.
I have to say, I was very proud of that moment. I did not feel like I was disturbing her.
I felt like I was resurrecting her remains from a place where they should have never been to begin with.
NARRATOR: Detectives agree that, without Dr. Murray's expertise, locating the body and properly excavating the skeleton
would have been an extremely difficult task. We searched that field at least three times,
maybe four times. If Dr. Murray wasn't there, I'm sure it would have took quite a long time to find the remains.
NARRATOR: With all the evidence finally in hand, investigators can now put forward
their theory as to what happened in the last grim hours of Carrie's life. It's March 14th, 1993.
Danny Hobart gets in his car and drives to the street where Carrie Erickson is working as a prostitute.
He went looking for a victim, found Carrie, walking her normal street, offered her some money.
CARRIE ERICKSON: Hey, handsome, you want to know something? DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Then he drove her to our park.
They walked back into the wooded clearing. NARRATOR: Then, as she leads him deeper into the park,
Danny Hobart grabs her from behind. He quickly wraps a garrote or similar weapon tightly around her neck.
Almost immediately, it cuts off her airway, preventing oxygen from getting to her lungs
and into her blood stream. Within minutes, vital organs begin to shut down, and Carrie dies.
He may have panicked, severed the head from the torso. NARRATOR: This strike also crushes the first few vertebrae
in Carrie's neck. I think the reason he cut the head from the body was an attempt to thwart, or at least
delay, the identification. NARRATOR: Hobart leaves Carrie's skull in the woods and throws her body in the trunk.
He then drives to his home and buries her headless torso in his backyard, where she stays until Dr. Murray
excavates her two years later. He would have killed and killed until he got caught.
That's exactly what he would have done. NARRATOR: Danny Hobart is sentenced to a total of 25 to 56 years.
It is unlikely he will ever see the outside of a prison again. Police are grateful for Dr. Murray's contributions
to this long and difficult investigation. Her expertise she bought was invaluable to the case.
DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Dr. Murray was definitely Carrie's angel, her eyes, her ears,
her voice, so to speak. She spoke for Carrie. NARRATOR: The team that worked on the case
for so long has a sense of satisfaction, knowing they finally helped secure justice for Carrie.
DAVID STEINBRUNNER: Some people would say that the prostitute's life isn't worth anything.
The fact is that she was somebody's daughter, somebody's sister. She deserved every bit to live just like you do and I do.
NARRATOR: But most importantly, Dr. Murray takes comfort in knowing that she helped bring a measure of peace
to Carrie's family. I can't imagine the pain of her family losing a daughter, a sister.
My work is what I have to offer them, giving the best information I can help to bring this case to justice.

Renovations in a South Philadelphia row house reveal a wooden box filled with tiny human bones. Park rangers' rounds are disrupted when a human skull is found in the brush.

This true crime series delves into the case files of the country’s top forensic anthropologists and reveals the secrets trapped deep inside the human body.

Brief Summary

Forensic experts uncover the tragic stories behind 16 tiny coffins and a murder case in Philadelphia.

Key points

Mysterious Discovery in Philadelphia. Construction workers unearth 16 tiny coffins in a basement, raising many questions.
The Investigation Begins. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Tom Crist and his wife Molly are called to uncover the mystery.
The Dark History of Almshouses. Dr. Crist uncovers the grim reality of the Philadelphia almshouse and its impact on children.
A Chilling Revelation. Dr. Crist discovers that three of the children are missing their heads, deepening the mystery.
The Discovery of a Skull. A park ranger finds a human skull in the woods, leading to a police investigation.
Identifying the Victim. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray identifies the skull as belonging to Carrie Erickson.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This was really a mystery.

Dr. Crist describes the uncertainty surrounding the discovery.

6:33WatchSep 30, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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