I Want My Mummy!
Judge Orders Burial of Mummified Baby
Thu Sep 20, 10:59 AM ET
CONCORD, N.H. - A judge has ordered a man to lay an unusual family heirloom to rest: a mummified baby has been passed down for generations.
Authorities seized the mummy last year when the man's niece mentioned it to staff at a day care center.
State tests showed the baby had died of natural causes, but they didn't establish a family relationship. Now, the state won't release the remains to the Charles Peavey family without proof of kinship, and Peavey says he can't afford DNA testing.
Prosecutors raised concerns about the family's treatment of the mummy if it was returned.
The mummy, known as "Baby John," had been on display on a bureau in Peavey's home. Relatives and friends treated the mummy as a family member, giving cards during holidays and even a dried fish as a pet. Peavey said his family believes the mummy was the child of a great-great uncle.
"I've never treated him like a joke. No weirdness was going on," Peavey said.
Probate Judge Richard Hampe said without kinship proven, the baby must be buried.
Peavey said the family was disappointed but won't appeal.
"It's one of the few things from our family past that we have left," Peavey had written in a petition to the court. "And when I pass on, I was looking forward to passing it on to another family member, to keep some of the history for future family members."
- The freaking Adamms Family!!!!
Thu Sep 20, 10:59 AM ET
CONCORD, N.H. - A judge has ordered a man to lay an unusual family heirloom to rest: a mummified baby has been passed down for generations.
Authorities seized the mummy last year when the man's niece mentioned it to staff at a day care center.
State tests showed the baby had died of natural causes, but they didn't establish a family relationship. Now, the state won't release the remains to the Charles Peavey family without proof of kinship, and Peavey says he can't afford DNA testing.
Prosecutors raised concerns about the family's treatment of the mummy if it was returned.
The mummy, known as "Baby John," had been on display on a bureau in Peavey's home. Relatives and friends treated the mummy as a family member, giving cards during holidays and even a dried fish as a pet. Peavey said his family believes the mummy was the child of a great-great uncle.
"I've never treated him like a joke. No weirdness was going on," Peavey said.
Probate Judge Richard Hampe said without kinship proven, the baby must be buried.
Peavey said the family was disappointed but won't appeal.
"It's one of the few things from our family past that we have left," Peavey had written in a petition to the court. "And when I pass on, I was looking forward to passing it on to another family member, to keep some of the history for future family members."
- The freaking Adamms Family!!!!
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that's odd 0 -
To say the very least. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
To say the very least.
To say the very least would be to say nothing. Don0 -
quote:No weirdness was going on," Peavey said.
DOH!0 -
quote:To say the very least would be to say nothing.
Saying nothing is not saying. To say, something must be said. I said what she said was saying the very least. I would say that is the very least that can be said. You may say otherwise, but I would say you don't know what you are saying.
Go bother Mattie.0 -
"I've never treated him like a joke. No weirdness was going on," Peavey said.
Um, dude, you have a DEAD MUMMIFIED BABY on your bureau and it has its own pet dead fish. Yeah, no weirdness there whatsoever. [;)]0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
quote:To say the very least would be to say nothing.
Saying nothing is not saying. To say, something must be said. I said what she said was saying the very least. I would say that is the very least that can be said. You may say otherwise, but I would say you don't know what you are saying.
Go bother Mattie.
Say what? Don0 -
Sick. Just plain sick. 0 -
You'd think that relation or not would have no bearing for requirement of burial.[:0] 0 -
So what is the state goning to do with it? File the deceased in the basement of the courthouse? 0 -
Keep it in a filing cabinet in the tax accessor's office? 0 -
My Dad had a part of a wheel of cheese in a Ziplock bag somewhere in his house that my great-grandfather brought over on the boat from "the Old Country."
I thought that was weird....0 -
Pretty weird. What kind of people live in a household that keeps preserved remains on grotesque display? Sounds like something Neanderthals would do.
[;)][:0]0 -
I hate to say it...But how do the authorities know that anyone in any household is a relative... It should be up to them to prove the stiff ain't and not the other way around!!! Damn Nazis anyway!!! 0 -
quote:Originally posted by tobefree
I hate to say it...But how do the authorities know that anyone in any household is a relative... It should be up to them to prove the stiff ain't and not the other way around!!! Damn Nazis anyway!!!
Innocent until proven guilty?
Interesting concept.0 -
I don't know 'bout you fellas, but that story will give me freakin' nightmares!
Hello!
Mummified baby!
With a pet fish!
Cousin It!
Lerch!
I want to know more about these people. Are they hillbillies, freakazoids or Rubber Johnny's folks? Where is Geraldo when you need him?
Nobody said anything all these years until now? What the hell is going on up there in New Hampshire?
I am flabbergasted.
Baby John indeed...0 -
The funeral home in Alton Illinois kept the body of "the worlds tallest man" on display in a closet for years. Town youngens would stop by and ask to see him, and they would open the closet door. 0 -
In High School biology class we had a fetus in embalming fluid. Probably would'nt fly these days. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Captplaid
quote:Originally posted by tobefree
I hate to say it...But how do the authorities know that anyone in any household is a relative... It should be up to them to prove the stiff ain't and not the other way around!!! Damn Nazis anyway!!!
Innocent until proven guilty?
Interesting concept.
It might work given half a chance!!!0 -
quote:I want to know more about these people.
[:0][:0][:0][:0][:0][:0][:0][:0][:0]
I most emphatically do not![xx(]0 -
quote:Originally posted by mateomasfeo
I don't know 'bout you fellas, but that story will give me freakin' nightmares!
Hello!
Mummified baby!
With a pet fish!
Cousin It!
Lerch!
I want to know more about these people. Are they hillbillies, freakazoids or Rubber Johnny's folks? Where is Geraldo when you need him?
Nobody said anything all these years until now? What the hell is going on up there in New Hampshire?
I am flabbergasted.
Baby John indeed...
When I read the story I kept getting a pictur of a muslim family.0 -
I was thinking LDS. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
I was thinking LDS.
You mean Adic [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]0 -
quote:You mean Adic
[?]0 -
quote: "I've never treated him like a joke. No weirdness was going on," Peavey said
what he is trying to say is "we stopped short of having sex with it, so it could have been wierder"
quote:Originally posted by Captplaid
The funeral home in Alton Illinois kept the body of "the worlds tallest man" on display in a closet for years. Town youngens would stop by and ask to see him, and they would open the closet door.
where did you hear this at?0 -
Back during the Influenza pandemic of 1918, it was pretty routine for areas to be put under quarentine, no one leaves, no one comes. In the meantime, folks would die. Families were left to inter their loved ones as best they could. Friend of mine has a neighbor that found 3 coffins planted his front yard, victims of the flu.
Maybe the babe died, and the grieving family couldn't stand to put it in the ground.
Not that I'm saying it's "normal," but I wonder if this sort of scenario might have played out. It's the dramatist in me. Add with that the human species limitless need to "normalize" even the most macabre.0
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