Empty military casket found

Houston Chronicle ^ | June 25, 2006, 8:18PM | Associated Press

[cbkaty]

TUCSON, ARIZ. - An empty casket with a military seal was discovered in a desert area south of Tucson, and sheriff's deputies were looking for the body.

ADVERTISEMENT "Obviously it had the smell, and there was other evidence that it had been inhabited recently," Deputy Dawn Barkman said Sunday.

Forensic investigators took DNA samples, and a nationwide alert was issued in hope of finding out who was the casket, Barkman said.

Deputies were called to a desert area near Interstate 10 Saturday after two people playing paintball found the casket. The casket was metallic silver with a U.S. Army insignia on it.

"We have a lot of cemeteries, but it could be from anywhere," Barkman said. "Right now we don't have any concrete information where it came from."

[cbkaty]

.........comments? This is sad and at the same time so very weird....

[butternut_squash_bisque]

I had to check the source. At first I thought it was Scrappleface or the Onion. OMG, this is beyond weird and sad.

[TomGuy]

Surely, knowing how the government likes paperwork and crossing referencing, the casket has serial identification that can be traced.

[IncPen]

"Obviously it had the smell..."

Now that is police work...

[satchmodog9]

You would think some cemetery would have reported a hole in the ground.

[IronJack]

Can you say "smuggling"?

[cva66snipe]

You would think some cemetery would have reported a hole in the ground.

Yea something smells here more than the body.. It would have to be a recent burial{less than 12 months}. I've opened the same grave a body was buried in before a few times one was within about 6 months or so. No noted odor. It was in a National Cemetry and the vet and spouse are burried in the same grave. There were one or two cases where we dug the origional grave and the spouse or vets grave a foot or so above the first to die a few months later.

Exzumng a grave is quite noticeable the dirt being disturbed will be very notable unless the one doing so knows about sodding the grave. Even then you can tell ground has been disturbed.

[Iris7]

It is probably an aluminum shipping casket. A sort of air freight container. They are not used for burial.

The body is turned over to a civilian mortuary when released to the family.

Remember those aluminum boxes well from the old days.

[cbkaty]

Can you say "smuggling"?

..hmmmm....I can understand smuggling...but with a sealed US Military Casket? Now that's sick!

There have been some low-life undertakers that saved a few bucks by dumping bodies instead of processing & burying them....

[BallyBill]

Smuggling? Exactly my thought. What better place to stash contraband than in a casket. Maybe, there was a body in it at one time.
It's been done before, at least in Hollywood movies and Hawaii 5-0.

[cva66snipe]

It is probably an aluminum shipping casket. A sort of air freight container. They are not used for burial. The body is turned over to a civilian mortuary when released to the family. Remember those aluminum boxes well from the old days.

Sounds more reasonable. I kinda sense a college frat house kinda situation. Something they may have had for initiation's etc. The smell? Psychological or maybe nearby animal.

[Al Gator]

This was a common way to smuggle high grade heroin into the US during Viet Nam.

Nothing new with this approach at all.

I'm only surprised it took this long for some enterprising souls in "graves" to do it.

[cva66snipe]

There have been some low-life undertakers that saved a few bucks by dumping bodies instead of processing & burying them....

That would be hard to pull of if it was a K.I.A. The soldiers are taken home with escort. Escort stays for duration of burial. But yes there are some sicko's out there. A Georgia/Tennessee based operator comes to mind as a most recent case. A family ran funeral home who did cremations IIRC. The furnace had issues and the owner did illegal disposals. A military coffin says Killed In Action or died on active duty. Or as another poster pointed out likely a transport coffin instead.

[SR 50]

Some guy in Iraq probably couldn't afford a plane ticket back to the USA so he paid someone a couple hundred dollars for the ride to the states. Remember some guy in New Youk or PA mailed himself in a crate to California a few years back?

[conservativewasp]

Maybe a dead cat tossed in with 75 kilo's of coke. Make it smell authentic.

[Phsstpok]

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner was here

[Phsstpok]

a central part of one of Tom Clancy's novels, Without Remorse, was a drug smuggling operation that stashed bags of heroin inside the bodies of KIA returning from Vietnam. They then had people in the processing center remove the bags before the bodies were prepared for return to the families.

"Mr. Clark" (then using his "real" name, John Kelly) convinced the gang that this was a bad idea.  Forcefully.

[NavyCanDo]

I agree with the college frat house theory. It is reasonable that the casket may have contained a body but it was processed through a mortuary for burial and the empty casket stolen from the mortuary. I would bet many non-military caskets end up stolen nation wide. Especially during the end of the year college parties, or during Halloween.

[cva66snipe]

I agree with the college frat house theory. It is reasonable that the casket may have contained a body but it was processed through a mortuary for burial and the empty casket stolen from the mortuary. I would bet many non-military caskets end up stolen nation wide. Especially during the end of the year college parties, or during Halloween.

When I was a kid I worked with my uncle who was ahead of his time. He would clean out basements for what was in them and sell them at a small flea market he ran back before they really became popular. In one house in a college area we found a kids coffin in the basement. The house was occupied by college kids. You'll see everything both in frat houses and off campus houses.

[cva66snipe]

Maybe a dead cat tossed in with 75 kilo's of coke. Make it smell authentic.

With the scrunity and the attention on of handling of K.I.A.'s these days by the military I doubt it came from there as smuggling. Too many risk factors. Likely an old box. In equipment being shipped back? Sure likely being done.