Police hope facial sketch release will help identify woman's embalmed head found in Economy
Investigators are hoping that a soon-to-be-released facial sketch will help identify a woman whose embalmed head was found last week in a wooded area of Beaver County, and explain how it got there.
“It's one of those things you keep thinking about,” Economy police Chief Mike O'Brien said Wednesday. “Every question goes back to, where did this come from?”
Investigators plan to release the sketch in the next few days.
The woman is believed to be in her 60s or 70s. Investigators aren't sure when and how she died or when she was embalmed, O'Brien said. She had styled, gray hair, but police would not provide further description. Because she was embalmed, investigators don't believe her death was a homicide, O'Brien said.
“The biggest tragedy is that some family thinks their loved one is resting in peace or donated to the betterment of helping other people, and in either case, that's not true,” said Beaver County District Attorney Anthony J. Berosh.
A resident walking Friday afternoon along Mason Road adjacent to Old Economy Park spotted the head.
Police, detectives, emergency services employees, firefighters and a cadaver dog searched for several hours Sunday but didn't find other human remains.
“It's very unusual. It's so bizarre that we have really not been able to find anything. Any research that we've done so far, we've found nothing like this,” O'Brien said.
Investigators want to know if the woman came from a funeral home or was destined for a medical school, or whether there's another explanation.
Beaver County Coroner Teri Tatalovich-Rossi has reached out to some medical schools, Berosh said.
Tatalovich-Rossi said Wednesday that she did not have new information to release and that her office continues to investigate.
Investigators will enter her DNA into a nationwide FBI database for missing persons, but Berosh said that any response could take weeks or longer.
“Where this stands, right now at this moment in time, is that we don't know who this person is,” Berosh said. He added that investigators hadn't received any reports of disturbed graves.
News of the discovery shocked Shoshana A. Matusak, director of the Office for Oversight of Anatomic Specimens at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC.
“I can assure you, we account for every single specimen that's used,” Matusak said. “We have a program that accounts for all of the tissue used by our investigators, our faculty. Requests for tissue donors go through rigorous review.”
Researchers there embalm remains after they arrive, she said.
“It's quite upsetting to read about this type of occurrence because one of the most important objectives of our program is to stress the respect that must be provided to all tissue that's handled by any of our faculty or trainees,” Matusak said. “You must always remember the source from which it came. For something like this to be handled in such a way is just appalling.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Bill Vidonic is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5621 or bvidonic@tribweb.com.
