This page has been translated from sources not in English and may contain inaccuracies or errors.
Bratten Jane Doe was a woman whose body was found buried in a coffin on the Bratten Beach Resort on the island of Styrsö, Sweden.
Case[]
On May 27th, 1890, two labourers were digging on the Bratten Beach in Styrsö, Sweden in order to dig the foundations for a new outbuilding on the resort. One of the workers started digging in an area near a bathhouse before his shovel hit something hard at a depth of 3 feet underground. The two workers unearthed the object and they found that it was a coffin and when they opened it they were greeted by a skeleton.
The remains were sent to local physician Wilhelm Gottfrid Theodor Runström who observed that the skeleton was well preserved although a few of the bones were misplaced as one end of the coffin was damaged. The brain was also retrieved from the remains but it decomposed almost immediately when it came in contact with air. Runström believed that the remains belonged to a woman but was unable to say for certain and estimated that the remains belonged to someone who at most would've been 30 when they died.
The coffin the body was found in minus the damage to it was also well preserved with the coffin being made out of shaved planks with some reporting that they had been painted black. No cause of death could be determined but Runström found no evidence indicating that the death had been the result of violence and was likely not a criminal issue. He also estimated that the remains had been in that coffin for around 30 - 40 years.
A few more discoveries were made when Runström examined the coffin itself and the inside of it and discovered a hair braid which was seen as confirmation that the body belonged to a woman. He also found nail that had been used to seal the coffin known as Norwegian spike/Norsk dragspik which was a large pull nail made 20 years prior to the discovery leading Runström to conclude that the absolute longest the body could have buried would've been 20 years. Adding to the credibility of this estimate is that if the body was buried any earlier the site would've been submerged under shallow water due to shoreline displacement.
The body was buried in early June as an unidentified female.
Clothing and accessories[]
- A hair braid.
- A large Norwegian Spike.
Sources[]
- Göteborgs Aftonblad:
- Göteborgs-Posten (Swedish)