Skull Found In Wall ID'd As Teen Who Died In 1866: Coroner

BATAVIA, IL — Almost 50 years after a skull was found inside the walls of a Batavia house, the Kane County Coroner's Office solved the cold case.

Coroner Rob Russell announced Thursday the remains have been identified as Esther Granger, a 17-year-old girl who died in Indiana in May 1866. Investigators believe she died from complications of childbirth.

The coroner's office's cold case team, with help from Texas-based Othram, used modern DNA technology to identify the remains, found in November 1978.

A couple was remodeling their Wilson Street apartment when a bone fell from inside the wall while they were removing a baseboard, Patch reported.

Why was her skull found in a wall? "With records and good reasons, we've come to a common-sense theory. We believe Esther was a victim of grave robbing," Russell said at a press conference.

Police were called in and discovered more bones behind the wall. Since DNA and genealogical records were not advanced in the '70s, the most investigators could determine came from the anthropology department at Northern Illinois University, where a professor surmised the woman was in her mid-20s when she died prior to 1900.

"Batavia police searched records for missing persons and no additional information was revealed," Russell said. "After the exhaustive search and investigation, the case grew cold."

The case was reopened when Batavia Depot Museum staff uncovered the remains while cleaning out an empty room. After the police department was called in and remanded the findings to the coroner's office, Russell tapped the cold case team, formed in 2015, to investigate.

In December 2023, the coroner's office turned to the public to begin crowdfunding to raise the money necessary to perform the ancestral match from the skull's DNA.

RELATED: Could DNA Help ID Skull, Remains Found In Batavia Home In 1978?

"Within two weeks of me officially authorizing the testing and genetic matching of the skull, Othram sent a report to us stating that the profile had yielded a match," Russell said. "Not only did they have a match but also a family tree with living relatives."

Investigators contacted the second-great-grandson, who submitted DNA to Othram to confirm a match.

"We are very honored to be able to serve his family by restoring a sense of decency to the life and death of his second-great-grandmother," Russell said.

Esther Granger was laid to rest at West Batavia Cemetery in a columbarium space donated by the City of Batavia.

Also read: Burial Planned For Yorkville Skeletal Remains From Mid-1800s Woman