2022, History, home, Mysteries, The Future, Uncategorized

Digging Up The Past

57 Comments

Things took a grisly turn in Grand Forks last week when police dug up someone’s yard where a presumed murder victim was thought to be buried. The disappearance of the young woman occurred about 25 years ago. The current residents are unrelated to the murder victim or the alleged crime. The location was a construction site at the time of the disappearance.

Nothing was found. I can’t imagine how the current owners felt about the prospect of a corpse under their front yard. Would they hope something would be found, or would they be disappointed the search was unsuccessful? I would worry the remains were still there and I would think about it every time I mowed the lawn.

Other than finding some Wedgwood porridge bowls buried under several inches of spruce needles when we trimmed off the bottom spruce branches (they had been left there by daughter and her best friend when they were little girls and used the space under the trees as their fort and hiding place), we have never found treasure or horror as we have gardened. Our neighborhood was originally the town’s first golf course. We have found nary a golf ball or a tee.

What would you like to bury in your yard for future generations to find? Where would you hide a corpse ?

57 thoughts on “Digging Up The Past”

  1. 3 years ago, I received an “honored alumnus” award from a grad school I attended 40 years earlier. It’s beautiful heavy blue glass with a cheap engraved steel placque on it. I think I might pry off the placque, dig a post hole, drop it in and cover it up. That would really make someone wonder when my now 100 year-old house eventually gets replaced.

    As for dealing with a corpse, I don’t want to think about it.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. i had dogs buried at mt last house and i’m fairly certain the re landscaped where the cemetery was
      surprise!!!

      i have left time capsules for future discovery in sheetrock walls and roof trusses
      i think they were stuff like cassette tapes and marlboro cigarettes maybe a credit card

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

  4. Rise and Start Digging, Baboons,

    We also have a dog corpse (our late, great Lucky) here buried according to city guidelines (at least 3 ft deep), but the grave is well marked, so there should not be a surprise in the near future. While gardening in this yard I have uncovered infinite numbers of action figures, and the parts thereto, Happy Meal toys, marbles, and miscellaneous plastic toys that belonged to the little boy who lived here prior to us. We also have found countless number of walnut shells buried by the squirrels, then betrayed during the next growing season by walnut shoots. We remove them immediately.

    Where would I hide a corps? the quickly disappearing Lake Mead in Nevada appears to be the popular place. Assuming I would ever have a need, maybe there since everybody is doing it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. My dad told me that the owner of a small fiberglass company in Luverne surreptitiously buried several barrels of chemicals (including polyvinyl chloride, I think) in the area in the back of his shop. He wanted to avoid having to dispose of it, presumably for a cost, according to EPA guidelines.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Well dang, how disappointing (“Nothing was found.)
    Seriously, for her family’s sake, I hope they find her sometime.

    How about burying all the subway tokens and foreign currency we still have from various trips. Thinking…

    I would hide a corpse in the attic – NO, WAIT!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. I’ve been considering one of those green burials in which you are planted as a tree seed. I’m still considering but it seems like a good alternative.

    I used to dig up lots of shards of pottery and old enamel-ware pots in the backyard at my home in Waterville. People used to bury household trash and I think I found quite a bit of it.

    Seriously? You’re asking where I’d bury a corpse? Like I would tell you?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

        2. all jimmy stewat ones are good
          all kim novack
          tippy herein eva marie saint
          he found actors who were favorites and came back to them
          i love hitchcock

          Like

  9. bodies… my little secret

    my wife recently started making sure i was informed of all the deaths and horrific stuff in the news
    we visited my kids in chicago this week and they commented on how it was an odd thing to focus on
    watching too much tv will getcha

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. I took out a wall in our house on the North Shore. Our neighbors three houses over who had built the house came over when they heard we were doing that and said in embarrassment that they had left each other sexy notes in that wall written on paper nailed to the studs. I told them when I got to that point where it would be opened up they could come take them out. The moment came. She came over. No body. A failure of memory. They came over couple days later and he said I had taken them out and read them. She told him again that I did not open the wall until she came. He remained angry. A lesson in failure of memory.
    Clyde

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  12. I made many wooden toys as a child which I later buried. I am sure they rotted away. No idea where I buried them. If we had an animal that died, we recycled it. In other words, hauled it out in the woods. Wait a year, even bones were hard to find.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  13. My mother once fed leftover pancakes to a Boots, not The Boots. We had 3 dos name Boots. The a Boots buried them in the manure pile. She thought was so funny as did we all. Assuming I can trust my memory

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. My dad had one attempt at making cheese. He wrapped the semi rotted milk he was using in nylon parachute material, put it between two boards and put a concrete block on top, to squeeze it someway or other. Next morning the bag of attempted cheese was gone. We found it later, yes, in the manure pile,(dungheap in English), half eaten. I don’t know how we knew it was Nell, there were two dogs at the farm. But it was.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  15. We just had a discussion about where to hide a body!
    Not that we had one to hide, but people are always finding bodies! I think hiding one would be harder than you think!

    Between hunters and various people surveying or checking power lines and stuff… things are not necesarrily as remote as you think they are.

    A friend of mine said they put some stuff in the walls of their kitchen while remodeling so the next person can find it. I’ve written notes inside things to find later.
    Even if it’s just a month later, it’s fun to remember that.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  16. Landed in St Louis at 7:30. It’s already rained here more since I arrived than it has the whole summer in Minneapolis. I’m thinking there’s enough water in the drainage system here that that would be a good place for a body. It could just wash right out to the Mississippi and be in Louisiana before you know it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  17. I read a short story a long time ago about a farmer who picked up hitchhikers, killed them, and fed their bodies to his hogs. I forget who wrote the story.

    Like

    Reply

  20. Dairy herdsin England expanded greatly in the sixties and seventies, and the semi liquid dung from outdoor yards started being scraped into”slurry pits”, on many farms outside, catching a lot of rainwater also. Every so often the efficient farmer would spread it on the fields to go through the cycle again. One place I worked, it was less efficient. We’d spread some of it, then Mike would decide that was enough work and expense, and we’d stop way before we got to the other end of the pit. The perfect place, I thought, just throw him in (a boyfriend of my sister’s ), no burying, and when he got ripe, no one would notice. And it never did get cleaned out, did it? Luckily I never did it (honest……), because when the farm got sold, I soon found that never wouldn’t have been long enough for me to run away.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  21. OT – Here’s a message from The Current:
    “Butch Thompson, a pianist long known to jazz fans and to MPR listeners, died Sunday at the age of 78 due to complications from Alzheimer’s Disease. Radio Heartland host Mike Pengra will pay tribute to Thompson this Wednesday, Aug. 17, by featuring some of his music on Radio Heartland, as well as on Radio Heartland on The Current on Sunday, Aug. 21, at 7 a.m.]

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.