[W]HITE RIVER JUNCTION — Andrew Graham often uses the trails near the VA Medical Center for recreation, simply because they are within walking distance of his home.
But on the evening of March 5, Graham heeded a suggestion from a neighbor and decided to explore a different route than normal. He set out on foot northeast toward Interstate 91.
The 32-year-old Graham, who has a master’s degree in environmental studies, surveyed the land as he normally does, “all around and up and down.” There wasn’t too much color variation that day; a thaw had set in and the ground was free of snow.
That’s why a blue duffel bag at the bottom of a steep embankment in a narrow patch of woods about a quarter-mile from his home caught his eye.
He walked toward it. “When I got about 15 to 20 feet away, I saw a skull, which also stood out because it was white,” Graham said. “It was a human skull, and it had rolled down below the rest of the skeleton.”
Graham’s discovery has led to a state police investigation and a puzzle about what happened, who the person was and how he died.
Vermont State Police on Wednesday said they are making progress on the case. Preliminary investigation shows the remains are those of a male who is from outside the Upper Valley, Detective Sgt. Michael Dion said.
“There is no positive identification yet,” and the person’s name is being withheld because state police haven’t been able to say with certainty who the person was, Dion said. They have been able to draw conclusions based on items found at the scene, though.
“When you are dealing with remains … it is a slower process,” Dion said in a telephone interview. “It doesn’t work as quick as in ‘CSI.’”
Police found some identification with the remains and have been able to touch base with the dead man’s relatives, who live outside the twin states.
From speaking with those relatives, Dion said, he is able to conclude that the man had been to the Upper Valley in previous years, had liked the area and used to have family who lived there.
The remains had been there for no longer than 2½ years, he said.
The death is not considered suspicious and could have been a “potential suicide,” Dion said. The man did not have a permanent home, Dion said.
As of Wednesday, Dion said, he couldn’t give a final conclusion on how the man died.
The case remains active.
Graham called state police last week in search of answers but didn’t get a wealth of information. His curiosity, however, is still piqued.
Since the encounter, many people have asked Graham about the emotional toll of making such a discovery.
His common reply, he said, is “it didn’t excite a lot of emotion in me because a skeleton is a lot more removed from the act of dying than a corpse is.” Bones and some articles of clothing were all that remained.
Thinking back to that day, Graham said his thought process immediately jumped to a “forensics mind-set of ‘What happened? How did this person end up here? (And) how long had they been here?’”
Those are among the questions that still remain.
