After 43 Years, Mother Finds Only Clothes Left Inside Son’s Coffin

This case is still being investigated into. A mother named Lydia Reid from Scotland, discovered after 43 years, her son’s corpse gone from inside of his coffin. A court order was made many years later, to have his body exhumed. Lydia had to fight against the system, along with the help of Professor Dame Susan Black to make this happen.

However, no body remains such as bones were found inside. The only thing left behind, were the clothes her son had on dating back to 1975, when her son tragically died early on. Her son only lived to be 7 days old, as he left this world from the Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children so long ago. At least that is what is believed.

Her lost baby boy’s name is Gary Paton. He was buried at the Saughton Cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland. Lydia knew something wasn’t right, when the weight of the coffin seemed so light. She watched as dirt was thrown around, uncovering the tattered coffin…where she thought her son was laid to rest. Even her son’s plaque was misspelled: “Garry”.

At the time of Gary’s birth, Lydia was a 26-year-old mother of two. Her water broke late one night and she went into labor just 34 weeks into the pregnancy. “I’d never gone into labor early,” she said. “I was fearful of what would happen to my child.”

The next day, doctors performed a Caesarean section and Gary was taken to a special care unit. “They did not feel it was wise for me to see him,” Reid said. “They didn’t let me hold him. That’s the way it was is those days.”

The hospital insisted she stay in her bed to recover from the C-section. But she repeatedly went to Gary’s room, clasped his little fingers and spoke lovingly to him. “He actually used to open his eyes and look at me,” she said. “His eyes were not unlike mine, but more brown.”

He had surgery on his gut to remove the catheter that a doctor had left in him,” Reid said. “They said his heart stopped three times on the table. They told me he had traumatic brain damage. They said he couldn’t recover.”

What is puzzling about this is, no remains were found whatsoever. A forensic anthropologist examined everything and only Gary’s baby garments were left along with pieces of the coffin and a small sized cross.

Scientifically, a body will eventually decompose. However, if the body is placed inside of an air tight coffin, typically it will take between eight to twelve years before a human skeleton will decompose completely. This would possibly explain this, yet quite literally nothing was found, no fragments at all. Other factors come into play, such as what type of wood was used to build the coffin. Oak coffins in particular, severely slow down the process.

Usually within 40 to 50 years time, bones will become both dry and brittle inside of a coffin. After the first year, all that is left…are usually the human skeleton and teeth. Sometimes some human tissue will still remain as well but not much.

This case remains quite a mystery as to what happened. If someone out there knows anything they should try to contact mother Lydia to give her a sense of peace. The love this mother has for her child, is a touching thing. She hopes that miraculously, her son is still alive and all of this was a mistaken burial of another child.

When 69 year old Reid was interviewed by The Washington Post, she said: “There was never any child’s remains in that coffin. I can’t even be sure he’s dead now — that’s the truth of it. Is my son alive? I have to look at all possibilities. My son could be anywhere.”

This mother is determined to find the truth of what happened to her son.

(Source: The Washington Post)