Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Police search for those who stole body of girl with CP from Pennsylvania grave

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:


Authorities and a family are wondering why someone would dig up and steal the body of a 9-year-old girl buried long ago in Lancaster.

Paula Ream, who had cerebral palsy, never walked or talked before she died in 1962, family members told the Intelligencer Journal. Her three sisters would carry her everywhere.

"Was it because it was Friday the 13th? Or some cult? Or somebody being initiated into something?" said one of the sisters, Fay Hamm, 71, of East Petersburg, Lancaster County.

Sometime between late August 11 and August 12, thieves stole a Ream's casket and remains from the Babyland section of Riverview Cemetery, where her parents were buried next to her.

Their graves were not disturbed, and Ream's marker was left behind, but a metal vase was also taken.

Relatives were notified August 13.

"It's just something you see on TV, on one of those unsolved mystery shows," said another sister, Cass O'Dell, 66, who lives in Lancaster. "It's just like it's unreal, like you're going to wake up and it's not true."