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“Significant,” she replied, reaching for the water bottle she’d left on a nearby equipment case. “We’ve completed the in-situ documentation for sites one and two. Ready for removal tomorrow morning.”
She unscrewed the cap and took a long drink before continuing. “The recovery team is packaging the remains from site three now. That one’s in the best condition of the group, relatively speaking.”
Matt nodded, glancing toward the excavation nearest the tree line where technicians were carefully lifting what appeared to be a femur into an evidence container.
“Any preliminary findings you can share?” he asked. In his limited experience, forensic anthropologists didn’t rush to conclusions—a quality he respected, even when it tested his patience.
Dr. Haddad considered the question, squinting slightly against the sunlight. “Off the record?”
“For now,” Matt agreed. “I understand you’ll need time for your full report.”
She nodded, gesturing for him to follow her a few steps away from the nearest technicians. “One of our victims—site two—shows evidence of blunt force trauma to the cranium. Significant enough that it’s visible even before detailed examination.” She traced a pattern on her own skull, indicating the location. “Depressed fracture patterns, occipital region.”
“Consistent with cause of death?” Matt didn’t miss her choice of word: victims.
“Likely. The pattern suggests significant force applied with a rounded implement, a hammer perhaps. Not sharp enough to cut but concentrated enough to fracture the skull.” She paused. “I’d need proper lab conditions to confirm, of course.”
Matt absorbed this.
Dr. Haddad continued. “The victim in site one, the first one you found. The cricoid bone was crushed in the throat, along with fractures to the cervical vertebrae, both findings consistent with manual strangulation. Again, I’d need to confirm in the lab, but it looked obvious to me. I thought you’d want to know as soon as possible.”
He swallowed deeply. These were murders. “And the third victim?”
Dr. Haddad’s eyes shifted, “I’ll need to get the remains back to the lab to determine cause of death. It’s not as well preserved, and it may be significantly older than the other two. The first two are women. Not sure on this last victim.”
A technician called to her from the excavation site, holding up what appeared to be a small object caught in the sifting screen.
“Excuse me,” she said, already moving toward the call.
Matt watched as she crouched beside her technician, examining the discovery with focused intensity.
Two women. The odds were high they were two of the single or widowed patients of the Foundation. There would have been no one to miss them back home.
The excavation team had already recovered several personal items: the ring from site one, a bracelet with glass beads, a watch with a broken leather band, and a small hairpin. Each item carefully documented, photographed, and packaged as potential evidence that might help identify the victims.
After a brief discussion, Dr. Haddad returned. “Small button, probably from a garment. Not particularly distinctive, but we’ll add it to the collection.”
“What’s your timeline from here?” Matt asked.
She sighed, pushing back a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail. “Honestly? Once I’m back in the lab, we’re looking at several weeks, not days. DNA extraction and sequencing takes time, especially with degraded samples. Carbon dating to narrow down time of death. Dental comparison if we can find records to match against.”
“Once I know the rough time of death, we can focus on the missing persons reports from that period,” Matt said, more to himself than to her. “Women who disappeared and were never found.”
“You’d be surprised how many young women went missing when this mansion was up and running. Left home, or maybe kicked out because they were pregnant, and were never properly searched for,” Dr. Haddad replied, her tone matter-of-fact rather than judgmental.
“You’re not sounding confident we’ll find any matches. What happens if we don’t?”
“Then we get creative.” She capped her water bottle. “We’ll upload the DNA profiles to CODIS, of course, but honestly, my most successful identifications lately have come through genetic genealogy, the commercially available ancestral databases like GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA.”
“I’ve heard about that,” Matt nodded. He’d read about commercial databases’ increase in prominence in cold case investigations over the past few years. It was controversial in solving crimes, but identifying missing persons was given a pass. “Wasn’t it used to solve the Green River Killer murders?”
“Exactly. If we can locate distant relatives through DNA matches, we can sometimes work backward to identify the victim.” She gestured toward the excavation sites. “I had a case in Vermont last year, four decades old, no missing persons report ever filed. We identified the victim through a third cousin who’d uploaded their DNA to one of those sites.”
The information stirred a complex mix of hope and frustration in Matt. Hope that they might eventually identify these women, frustration at the time it would take.
“I know it’s a slow process,” Dr. Haddad said, seeming to read his thoughts. “But it’s thorough. These people deserve that thoroughness after being forgotten for so long.”
“Agreed.” Matt appreciated her perspective.
