For decades, Charles Peavey's family has passed down what he admits is a most unusual family heirloom: the tiny corpse of a mummified baby whose mysterious history has been filled with legend. But Peavey, 41, of Concord had never considered the keepsake a problem until the Concord police learned of the remains last week and took them for testing.

The state attorney general's office is investigating the infant's age, origin and cause of death to rule out homicide. It seems unlikely that Peavey will face criminal charges, but the investigation has him worried.

Of all the stories surrounding the mummy's birth and death, Peavey favors the one that says he's an ancient relative - the stillborn son of a great-great uncle. He calls the mummy "Baby John."Through DNA testing, a forensic anthropologist will be able to determine whether that theory is plausible.

"I've always treated him as a family member," said Peavey, a cook at a Hooksett restaurant who spends his free time tracing his family history. "And I'll be disappointed if he's not."

Karen Huntress, a prosecutor with the state attorney general's office, wouldn't discuss the investigation. But Peavey said he was told the forensic tests could take months. The police left Peavey with one photograph of the mummy and the various gifts his family and friends have given it: ceramic angels, antique marbles, a quartz candle holder and a dried but once-living beta fish. (It was supposed to be the mummy's pet.)

"My friends at work say that even though this is not weird to me, I have to understand that it is weird to other people," Peavey said. "But for me, it's something tangible to hold on to from my great-great uncle."

Other mummies

While it's certainly unusual for mummies to turn up, it's not unheard of. In 2001, a mummified baby was found inside a storage locker in a Toronto apartment. Investigators believe that when the baby died in 1985, just after being born, its mother couldn't part with it.

In 2002, someone itemizing an estate in Connecticut opened a cedar hope chest and found a mummified infant wrapped in a blanket. Investigators determined the remains are 50 years old and the child of a woman who had never married, according to The New York Times. Despite its age, the baby had retained its form, although its skin was dried, withered and brownish.

The Peaveys' mummy looks much the same, even though it is believed to be much older. Peavey said the mummy first belonged to his great-great Uncle John Peavey, who was born in Ashland in 1850. By the family's estimate, the mummy is 80 to 90 years old.

Its brownish skin has dried tightly around its bones, and it looks almost skeletal. Its arms are bent in a bit. Peavey guesses that is from the bunting the baby was wrapped in after death. Its mouth hangs open, probably because the jaw eventually relaxed. Peavey said he believes the baby is male because its genitals were once at least partially intact. Whenever Peavey handled "Baby John," he wore gloves to protect its skin.

Ron Beckett, the co-director of the bio-anthropology research institute at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, has analyzed mummies all over the world and said with the right conditions, bodies can mummify naturally. The process does not require the organ removal and elaborate procedures associated with ancient Egyptian mummies.

"For decomposition to occur, you need water, and we are about 70 percent water," Beckett said. "If that water is gone quickly, you are a mummy."

Being wrapped in a blanket, as Peavey's mummy was, helps quickly wick away moisture from a body, Beckett said. That, along with dry conditions, like a cold attic in winter or the drying sands of Peru, can mummify a body. "How well (a body) is mummified depends upon how fast the drying process was,"he said.

Peavey and his family know nothing definitive about the origin of their mummy. After Peavey's great-great uncle died in Manchester in 1947, it was found among his things, wrapped in a bunting and tucked inside a box. On top of the box, there was a circle of shells and these words: "Sacred to the memory of our little Hawaiian home across the sea."

Single page