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Long-dead lady baffles French (2-year murder investigation reveals that victim died 500 years ago)
Sunday Times (South Africa) ^ | Wednesday January 25, 2006 08:54 - (SA)

Posted on 01/25/2006 9:04:23 AM PST by dead

BREST - French police who spent two years trying to identify a woman who was murdered by a blow to the head were relieved to discover the reason their efforts were failing: the woman died half a millennium ago.

The skeleton of a woman in her 30s was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h.

A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.

Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail.

A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests.

Eventually radiocarbon dating established that the death had occurred between 1401 and 1453.

"We are satisfied because at least we know the date now. We reckon it was pirates," said Francois Gerthosser of the Plourin-les-Morlaix police.

Sapa-AFP


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: france
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"We are satisfied because at least we know the date now. We reckon it was pirates," said Francois Gerthosser of the Plourin-les-Morlaix police.

Aaaarggh. Always be blaming the pirates.

1 posted on 01/25/2006 9:04:25 AM PST by dead
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To: dead

Lol.


2 posted on 01/25/2006 9:07:13 AM PST by nuconvert (No More Axis of Evil by Christmas ! TLR) [there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: dead

Talk about a cold case.


3 posted on 01/25/2006 9:07:35 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: dead
"Always be blaming the pirates."

What are pirates so popular?

They just arrrrrrrrrrr.
4 posted on 01/25/2006 9:07:36 AM PST by Moral Hazard ("Now therefore kill every male among the little ones" - Numbers 31:17)
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To: dead
A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests.

They had a skeleton and needed to wait for the DNA for that?

5 posted on 01/25/2006 9:08:12 AM PST by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
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To: dead

Amazing the body could have survived in water intact for that length of time.


6 posted on 01/25/2006 9:08:27 AM PST by Brett66 (Where government advances – and it advances relentlessly – freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: dead
Inspector Clouseau is on the case............
7 posted on 01/25/2006 9:09:09 AM PST by Red Badger (LUKE 22:36 JESUS: "........and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."........)
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To: Brett66
Amazing the body could have survived in water intact for that length of time.

Actually, it didn't survive that long. It was dead all that time. Arrrg! :)

8 posted on 01/25/2006 9:09:46 AM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: dead
Math question

Is the equation 500 years = half a millennium part of the New Math?
9 posted on 01/25/2006 9:09:47 AM PST by msnimje (http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/shared-blogs/ajc/luckovich/index.html . FREEP THIS HOURLY!)
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To: Brett66

Maybe it was frozen in a glacier or sumthin.


10 posted on 01/25/2006 9:10:31 AM PST by najida (Purgeing the world of literacy, one typo at a time.)
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To: dead

11 posted on 01/25/2006 9:11:17 AM PST by RMDupree (HHD: Join the Hobbit Hole Troop Support - http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net/)
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To: dead

It is because they are opposed to the belief in the Flying Spagetti Monster.


12 posted on 01/25/2006 9:11:43 AM PST by MeanWestTexan (Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
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To: Moral Hazard

The only other suspects arrrrrrrr SUV's!


13 posted on 01/25/2006 9:12:27 AM PST by grammarman
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To: Brett66

I've seen pictures, it was really more in the sand.

I would think that would be a pretty good preserver of bones.

And in fairness to the cops, I would think Carbon-14 dating is not in the standard test kit.


14 posted on 01/25/2006 9:13:20 AM PST by MeanWestTexan (Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
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To: Brett66
Amazing the body could have survived in water intact for that length of time.

Not everyone trusts radiocarbon dating methods. To be under the water, just below the tideline, for 500 years, and to look "good as new" seems a little hard to believe.

15 posted on 01/25/2006 9:13:44 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: dead

Avast, ye buggerblaster! Oi never laid me hook on the wench...


16 posted on 01/25/2006 9:14:18 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: RMDupree
I think Captain Feathersword has Tourette's Syndrome.

"Oooh! Eeeah! I don't ooh! think I 'ave that! Oooh! Me maties! Eaaah!"

17 posted on 01/25/2006 9:18:43 AM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: dead

I didn't know the frogs ever said "I reckon". Oui-ha!!


18 posted on 01/25/2006 9:19:37 AM PST by Millee (I've got FRiends in low places...)
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To: msnimje
Is the equation 500 years = half a millennium part of the New Math?

And the old math too. "Mille/Milli"=1000 "ennium/annum"=years.

19 posted on 01/25/2006 9:28:13 AM PST by Triggerhippie (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. <<<Sarasmom is a F'n lunatic - Beware>>>)
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To: dead

*laughing*

You may be on to something!


20 posted on 01/25/2006 9:33:47 AM PST by RMDupree (HHD: Join the Hobbit Hole Troop Support - http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net/)
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