In the Field, a Dark Discovery

If it had happened today, the story would have circulated on social media and maybe even gone viral, but before the World Wide Web, bizarre stories were free to happen now and then without necessarily catching the attention of the country. If you get a chance, take some time to browse through a microfiche news archive. You might be surprised at the stories you can find.

There was a story at my elementary school that got talked about when I was a kid. I’d call it an urban legend but the adults in our town were willing to confirm its truth once we were old enough for them not to worry about the details traumatizing us. I went to that elementary school in the 1990s, the story was from the 1980s, but that was recent enough for some of my classmates to have older siblings who “were there”.

The story was this: a pupil was playing out in the field behind the playground (which was against the rules but we all did it sometimes) and found a human vertebrae. The vertebrae was still bloody, and the student proudly showed his find to the other students on the playground, thinking he had found part of an animal that had been eaten by a predator.

The school nurse happened to be at the playground at the time and looked to see what was going on. Recognizing the vertebrae, she confiscated it before one of the smart kids realized what they were actually looking at and told everyone, telling them it was an interesting find and that the science teacher might want to study it and put it on display.

The police were called, and they did a line search of the field. They found a few more vertebrae, and other bone fragments, and a lot of blood. Some entrails too.

All they knew about the deceased was that he was an adult male. There was no identification to be found in what was left of his clothing or anywhere else.

This would be disturbing enough, but the real source of mystery and intrigue was the coroner’s report on the cause of death.

Falling. From at least one or two thousand feet.

This man, with no identification, and no parachutist gear to be found, had either jumped, fallen, or been pushed….or dropped, out of an aircraft, probably during the night before school. A tree overhanging the area where the most carnage was found had a couple sharply broken branches in the speculated fall trajectory, confirming the theory.

The man was never identified, and as far as I know the case is still cold.

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