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Friday, October 21, 2011

An Unknown Woman

Mystery and Intrigue in My Hometown


Found Dead in the Road,
An Unknown Woman
Meets a Frightful Fate.

In March of 1887, four brothers were
on their way to work when they found
a body of a woman alongside a fence.
The police were called and they found
she had been stabbed a dozen times.
As news spread through the small town,
the curious came out to the site to view
the scene, it is estimated a thousand people
came to the scene that day, but no one
knew her.  The police thought the girl to
be about 22 years old and by the look of her
clothing, she was probably in domestic service.
News spread of the death of this unknown
woman and thousands of people came to the
town to view the body, the Pennsylvania
Rail Road had extra trains stop in Rahway,
the main street was bumper to bumper with
carriages as the curious came to see if they
knew the girl.  The mystery has never been solved.

I had always heard of this story growing up but
had never seen the gravesite.  The other day I
visited the cemetery and with the help of the friendly
caretaker I found the gravestone.  It was nice to
see someone had left her a rose...


2 comments:

  1. Wow, what a strange story. I never thought about how they used to identify bodies in the olden days. Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. How sad!!! But also heartwarming to know that she has a dignified headstone and that someone has visited her and remembered her! I imagine DNA could solve the mystery these days!!!! But I wonder if anyone would bother now after all these years!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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