Found baby skulls part of 45-year-old Pennsylvania murder case, will be buried

CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees held a news conference covering the details of skulls recently discovered, leading to baby bodies being exhumed.

The two baby skulls, which were discovered at the Mutter Medical Museum in Philadelphia, were identified as children from a murder case in Gallitzin. The case is nearly 45 years old, stemming from the death of Gallitzin resident Stella Elizabeth Williamson, who was born in 1904.

After Williamson died in 1980, authorities were led to a trunk in the attic of her home where the remains of four newborns and a nearly 1-year-old were found, wrapped in newspapers dating from the 1920s and ’30s.

According to Lees, their bodies were examined in Philadelphia in 1980. Three of the five babies found were determined to have died from strangulation.

Lees noted that one of the two recently discovered skulls he examined from the museum still had a noose around its neck.

Lees decided, instead of burying the two babies on top of the other three, they would exhume the bodies and relocate them so all five could be carefully placed together and buried.

However, in an update from Lees, crews spent the entire day digging where it’s documented the first three bodies are, but have come up empty-handed. They will now bury the two separately in the same area and mark the site.

“This is a heart-wrenching case to go through, but it’s in my belief and my heart that I have to do the right thing here, and that’s what we’re going to do. These babies were buried 45 years ago in what they believe is a pine box,” Lees said during a somber news conference.

The babies were buried at Laurel United Cemetery, which is owned by Cambria County. You can watch Lees’ full news conference in the video player below.