In the late 18th century, a man was buried in Griswold, Connecticut, with his femurs placed crosswise—an arrangement that suggests the locals thought he was a vampire. However, little else was known about him. More than 200 years later, DNA the evidence shows what he might have looked like. (And yes, he was genetically human.)
After conducting DNA analysis, forensic scientists from Virginia DNA technology company Parabon NanoLabs and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL), a branch of the US Armed Medical Examiner System based in Delaware, concluded that during the death, the deceased man (known as JB55) was about 55 years old and suffered from tuberculosis. Using 3D facial reconstruction software, a medical examiner determined that JB55 was likely fair the skinbrown or hazel eyes, brown or black hair and several freckles, the statement said.
Based on the location of the legs and skull in the grave, researchers suspect that at some point the body was dug up and reburied, which is often associated with the belief that someone was a vampire. Historically, some people once thought that those who died tuberculosis were actually vampires, the statement said.
“The remains were found with the femurs removed and crossed at the chest,” Ellen Graytak, director of bioinformatics at Parabon NanoLabs and technical lead for Snapshot Advanced DNA Analysis, told Live Science. “That way they won’t be able to walk around and attack the living.”
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To conduct the analysis, forensic scientists began by extracting DNA from the skeletal remains of the man. However, working with bones that are more than two centuries old proved difficult.
“Technology doesn’t work well with bones, especially if those bones are historical,” Graytak said. “As bones age, they break down and fragment over time. Also, if the remains have been in the environment for hundreds of years, DNA from the environment of things like bacteria and fungi also gets into the sample. We wanted to show that we can still extract DNA from difficult historical samples.”
In traditional genome sequencing, researchers aim to sequence each part of the human genome 30 times, known as “30x coverage.” In the case of unfolded JB55 residues, sequencing yielded only about 2.5-fold coverage.
To complement this, the researchers obtained the DNA of a man buried nearby who was believed to be a relative of JB55. These samples gave even worse coverage: about 0.68X.
“We determined they were third-degree relatives or first cousins,” Graytak said.
Archaeologists originally excavated the remains of a suspected vampire in 1990. In 2019, forensics extracted his DNA and ran it through an online genealogy database, determining that JB55 was actually a man named John Barber, a poor farmer who probably died of tuberculosis. The nickname JB55 was based on the epitaph stamped on his coffin with brass tacks, which indicated his initials and age at the time of his death.
This week, the researchers will present their new findings, including a reconstruction of the face, on International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI) (opens in a new tab) conference held from October 31 to November 3 in Washington, DC
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