Arizona deputies baffled by empty casket

[unhappycamper]

Arizona deputies baffled by empty casket


(6/25/06 - TUCSON, AZ) - An empty casket with a military seal was discovered in a desert area south of Tucson, and sheriff's deputies were looking for the body.

"Obviously it had the smell, and there was other evidence that it had been inhabited recently," Deputy Dawn Barkman said Sunday.

Forensic investigators took DNA samples, and a nationwide alert was issued in hopes of finding out who was the casket, Barkman said.

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I spotted this article while browsing through a Japanese news site.

[TornadoTN]

1. Wow, thats bizarre

Would be interesting to find out how this ends up.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Don't the caskets have serial numbers or other inventory ID

that could be used to connect it to the body? :shrug:

[MADem]

3. I don't think that is a casket, it's a PTT

The casket was metallic silver with a U.S. Army insignia on it, she said.

If I were those deputies, I'd find out who in the area had been killed and shipped back from the sandbox or the 'Stan recently; or even due to an auto accident at an overseas or CONUS installation.

What they are describing sounds to me like a personnel transfer tube--the REUSABLE metal coffins that are built like camera cases, with a seal and so forth. After the remains are transported, they are either cremated or placed in an interment casket for burial. The PTT gets hosed down, disinfected, and returned to service to carry another poor kid home. There should be a barcode on the thing that they can scan and determine who was in it.

It could be someone took receipt of the remains of a loved one, and did the "Six Feet Under" routine where Nate buried Lisa out in the desert....

[lonestarnot]

4. PTT ... hmmm

[MADem]

5. Or it could be one of these....

http://www.cemeterybroker.com/militarycasketprices.htm

Maybe an old vet who wanted the affiliation all the way to the end?????

[Union Label]

6. Not much of an ending

But it looks like some kids may have borrowed it from a landfill. http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5080104&nav=HMO6HMaW