We now have a fairly good thought what the “Connecticut vampire” looked like

Forensic facial of JB55's appearance

Enlarge / Forensic facial reconstruction of the “Connecticut vampire” (aka JB55), accounting for known tooth loss and inferred wellbeing and fitness issues. Hair is dependent on 19th-century types. Skin, hair, and eye color are dependent on phenotype predictions. (credit: Parabon. NanoLabs )

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Thanks to the efforts of Parabon NanoLabs and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, we now know what the so-called “Connecticut vampire” most likely looked like. Using DNA research and a 3D scan of the skull, the two labs collaborated to digitally reconstruct. the face of the 19th-century man whose stays were found more than 30 years ago. The photograph was revealed earlier this month at the International Symposium on Human Identification conference in Washington, DC. The work additionally builds on earlier DNA research to strengthen the facts that the man in question was a former resident named John Barber.

As we’ve reported. previously, children taking part in near a gravel pit in Griswold, Connecticut, back in 1990 stumbled throughout a pair of skulls that had damaged free of their graves in a 19th-century unmarked cemetery. Subsequent excavation revealed 27 graves—including that of a middle-age man recognized only by the initials “JB55,” spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin. Unlike the other burials, his cranium and femurs were neatly prepared in the form of a cranium and crossbones, leading archaeologists to conclude that the man had been a suspected “vampire” by his community

Analysis. of JB55’s bones in the 1990s indicated the man had been a middle-age laborer, round 55 when he died. The stays additionally showed indicators of lesions on the ribs, so JB55 suffered from a continual lung condition—most most likely tuberculosis, known at the time as consumption. It was regularly deadly in the 1800s due to the lack of antibiotics, and symptoms included a bloody cough, jaundice (pale, yellowed skin), crimson and swollen eyes, and a normal appearance of “wasting away”. And the illness often unfold to loved ones members. That could be why neighborhood folklore suspected some victims of being vampires, rising from the grave to sicken the community they left behind

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