The Mystery of the Buried Box
A construction crew in Lake City unearths a crate containing human remains, but by the time authorities arrive, the evidence has mysteriously vanished.
While digging in a gravel bank north of the city yesterday, two men discovered a dry goods box, which was found to contain the partially decomposed body of a man. They notified the authorities, and this evening the body could not be discovered, and the box had been burned. Some supposed the remains to be those of the lynched negro who killed the marshal of this city last August, but others think them the remains of some white man mysteriously murdered.
“Some supposed the remains to be those of the lynched negro... but others think them the remains of some white man mysteriously murdered.”
Unmarked graves and 'mystery' burials were a grim, common trope in frontier reporting, often reflecting a callous disregard for the humanity of victims of vigilante violence. While Lake City is now a bustling neighborhood of Seattle, the erasure of such sites—whether through urban development or deliberate obfuscation—remains a persistent theme in how the city processes its violent history.
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