August 2009
by William Watson

After the initial find of human remains at Duffy’s Cut on March 20, 2009, Dr. Tim Bechtel of the University of Pennsylvania’s geology department took other electrical resistivity images of the old Philadelphia and Columbia railroad fill.  On July 22, we found two other sets of remains at the spot he indicated was the first location of interest.  A larger anomaly nearby is where we believe the mass grave containing numerous skeletal remains will be found. We knew the blacksmith buried the first few men properly, according to the written sources, but we were surprised to see that these men  had coffins (and what we thought initially was a sled for the first man also turned out to be a coffin).   We surmise that the blacksmith and the remaining men constructed the coffins for the first men, and that the rest of them were buried in the mass grave close to the first five graves. The first two craniums do show signs of violence from around the time of death.

Our forensic team consists of Dr. Janet Monge of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Matt Patterson, formerly of the US Navy, and Chester County Deputy Coroner, Dr. Norman Goodman.  They have discerned that the first man was about 18 years old, 5'6" tall, strongly built, had periodontal disease, a bad ear infection, several skull fractures from the time of his death, and he was missing his top right front molar, a rare genetic condition that would help us locate collateral descendants. The second man was also strongly built, about 5’5” tall, and his skull is about 75% to 80% intact.  It shows clear signs of perimortem violence on the cranium.  Dr. Monge is arranging to have CT scans of the remains at the University of Pennsylvania.  The latest man excavated is tangled in among old tree roots in a very eerie manner, with the tree essentially tearing apart his coffin and his remains.
 
Irish Ambassador to the US, Michael Collins, visited the site and saw the remains of the first man on July 16 with his wife.  Tile Films of Dublin returned in early August, and began filming a second Duffy's Cut documentary.  They were able to film the extraction of human remains at the site by our team.
 
West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, PA, has reaffirmed their pledge to rebury the men properly, after all necessary scientific testing has been completed at the University of Pennsylvania.