PITTSBURGH – Police in Beaver County work to identify a woman’s head found embalmed with the eyes removed.
The head was found in a wooded area Dec. 12, 2014. The remains of her body were buried on Saturday, and the Economy Borough Police held a press conference to release new information on the case this week.
The biggest mystery police are still working to figure out, has to do with what was found in her eye sockets.
Small red balls were found in place of the woman’s eyes.
“We have also been in contact with the funeral directors association, the medical examiner’s association, among several other schools that have all stated that this is not a common use or have never even heard of this type of use to replace eyes that have been enucleated from a body,” said Economy Police Chief Michael O’Brien. “We have investigated these and found them to be a common toy mass produced in China.”
The way the woman’s head was removed from her body is also a mystery.
“The exterior tissue was severed by a jagged formation,” said Beaver County Coroner Teri Tatalovich-Rossi. “But the interior of her remains were more precise. Precisely cut. And we cannot make a determination as to exactly how that happened.”
Sketches have been released of what the woman may have looked like at her death, around 50 years, and an age regression of what she may have looked like in her 30s.
Investigators say new information from hair and tooth enamel indicates that in the seven months leading up to her death, she moved up to four times and possibly lived in southwestern Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, northern Maryland or eastern New York.
