In November 1978, a man in Batavia, Ill., was renovating his home when he bumped into a wall with what appeared to be a human skull between the studs.
Almost half a century later – thanks to community fundraising, sophisticated DNA testing and cooperative genealogy – the skull’s identity has finally been confirmed.
It belonged to an Indiana teenager who died of complications during childbirth in 1866.
“We now know the skull found on the wall in Batavia is that of Esther Granger,” Kane County Coroner Rob Russell announced at a news conference Friday, surrounded by county officials and standing next to a replica skull in a glass case.
Granger was born in October 1848 in Indiana, and married her husband Charles in 1865 at the age of 16, authorities said. She died the following year shortly after giving birth to her first child, a girl.
public records show that Granger was buried in Merrillville, Ind. – about 80 miles away from the suburbs of Chicago where her skull was found over a century later.
“So the question remains: If he died in 1866 in Indiana, how could he have died on the wall at home in Batavia?” said Russell.
Investigators​​​​believe Granger was a victim of grave robberies, which were common and lucrative at the time. Perpetrators can make three to four months of profit from a single body — often sold to medical schools to study anatomy — and are rarely caught by law enforcement, Russell said.
The working theory is that someone living in a Batavian house obtained a corpse (or part of one) for medical study and, knowing the consequences, then hid it in a wall.
“There’s no absolute answer as to how Esther ended up on that wall or where the rest of the body is, but being the victim of a grave robbery doesn’t fit the bill,” Russell said.
The house where the skull was found is located “right smack-dab in the oldest part of Batavia,” Mayor Jeffrey Schielke said, and dates back to the 1850s.
“Thank you for helping solve the mystery, if we don’t have an unknown killer,” the mayor said with a laugh.
Technology, time and money help solve decades-old mysteries
The homeowner immediately called Batavia police after finding the skull in 1978, Russell explained, but the investigation was limited by the lack of DNA technology and genealogical records at the time.
The best guess is that the skull is that of a young woman who died at the age of 20 before 1900.
Over time, the case went cold – and the skull ended up in the Batavia Depot Museum, a local history museum located inside the train station. Batavia Police Chief Shawn Mazza said records show the skull was in the museum by 1979, but there is no information about how or why it arrived.
Museum employees were cleaning out the inventory in March 2021 when they found the skull in a box. He called the police, who found the 1978 report and sent the skull to the coroner’s office cold case unit for further investigation.
After two years of “looking at existing evidence and chasing leads,” Russell said, the office learned about a Texas company called Othram, which uses a relatively new technique called forensic genetic genealogy to help solve cold cases.
Othram scientists examine the skull and obtain DNA that can be tested. If Othram can take the profile, it will run through the database to search for possible family members, the company said, advising officials that they could try to cover the costs through crowdfunding.
Russell’s office asked the public for donations in December 2023, and ended up raising about $7,500. Within a few weeks, Othram found that his profile produced a match.
The company says Granger is the oldest case of unidentified human remains it has worked on to date, and one of the oldest individuals identified using forensic genetic genealogy.
“Not only do they have a match, but also a family tree with living relatives,” Russell said.
Investigators have been in contact with the relative, 69-year-old Wayne Svilar, whose DNA confirmed that he is indeed Granger’s great-grandson.
Svilar, a retired police sergeant with the Portland Police Bureau in Oregon, worked with the cold case squad in the early 2000s. Appearing at a press conference via Zoom, he said he initially thought the call was a scam, and his wife thought it was related to a previous case.
“To be honest, we don’t believe anything,” he said. “It took two or three phone calls to convince me.”
The Granger family was able to close and lay her to rest
Svilar said what convinced him that “this was not a well-organized scam” was the authorities’ passion and commitment to their work.
“The respect that has been shown to us, the family, in this process has been incredible,” he said.
Svilar says he doesn’t know anything about Granger, though he wants to talk to his grandparents. He said his side of the family will settle in Nebraska, and “all they say … is that life is hard.”
After Granger was identified, authorities developed a composite sketch of what she looked like in life. Svilar said he saw some similarities between the picture and the picture of his mother.
“I wish my mother was still here so I could tell this story – she would love it,” he said. “I feel that closure and respect for Esther during this process has given me great satisfaction.”
With the consent of his family, Granger was buried in a cemetery in Batavia. Svilar was full of praise, and told reporters this week that even though it was his first time in Batavia, he felt like he had been there before.
In a full-circle moment, added Svilar who recently came out of retirement to take a job with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, where part of his responsibilities will be working on cold cases.
Russell said Granger’s remains are kept in a columbarium paid for by the city, and labeled with a memorial plaque.
“He is forever now a resident of Batavia – a true resident of heaven, of course – but at least physically a resident of Batavia,” he said. “And we think it’s appropriate because he spends so much time here.”