“It has sort of been Salem folklore for a very long time,” Mayor Nick Farley stated.
SALEM, Sick. — There is a large thriller in Salem, IL, as metropolis leaders and researchers work to uncover the identification of the unidentified particular person killed within the 1971 Tonti prepare derailment.
On June tenth, 1971, an Amtrak passenger prepare derailed simply exterior of Salem, IL, injuring 163 individuals and killing 11 others.
A kind of individuals was by no means recognized and buried below what’s often known as the Tonti Stone.
“It has sort of been Salem folklore for a very long time,” Mayor Nick Farley stated.
For 54 years, the query of who precisely was buried below the Tonti Stone has haunted individuals within the Marion Co. neighborhood of simply over 7200.
“In the event you died in an accident like this wouldn’t you need to have your identification,” Henry Morton requested. “Wouldn’t you need to be mourned by your loved ones? Wouldn’t you need individuals to know what occurred to you.”
Six months in the past, Mizzou journalism pupil and Salem native Henry Morton started a mission to get solutions to these questions.
“We heard quite a lot of totally different tales about what was within the casket,” Morton stated.
Final week, Morton thought he was getting near cracking the case when a workforce of researchers from SEMO and the College of New Hampshire started exhuming the stays.
“After a lot effort and time that had gone into this undertaking to lastly seeing it occur it didn’t really feel actual,” Morton stated.
“We despatched the stays after we had them exhumed to the hospital to have them x-rayed,” Farley stated. “That’s once we began seeing bone fragments and bones that didn’t match up with among the different stays that have been in there.”
The Marion Co. Coroner confirmed discovering the stays of as many as 3 individuals contained in the casket.
“Does that imply there are a number of unknown victims,” Morton requested. “Does it imply the stays belong to different individuals who have been killed within the wreck? We’re unsure.”
Samples of DNA have been taken by the DNA Doe Challenge and will take anyplace from three months to at least one 12 months to course of.
“We’re going to unravel this,” Morton stated. “It’s going to take a short while, however I feel by doing it we’re going to unravel what’s occurring right here.”
The stays from the Tonti grave have been transferred by courtroom order to an area funeral dwelling the place they are going to be stored till they’re recognized utilizing the outcomes from the DNA evaluation.
