185 - The Stolen Grave of Paula Ream

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On August 7th, 1962, nine year old Paula Ream passed away following complications from Cerebral Palsy. Her mother, father and three sisters were devasted by her death and struggled to make it through their grief and pain. On a quiet afternoon, the child was laid to rest beneath a simple stone in Riverside Burial Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There she remained for forty-eight years. Then the unthinkable happened.

In early August of 2010, long after Paula's parents had been laid to rest beside her, an unknown figure crept into the cemetery. Under the cover of darkness, they broke through the earth, cracked open the vault and stole the small casket containing Paula's remains. Despite the shocking and grisly nature of the crime, investigators had few leads to follow.

Originally thought to have been a gruesome prank pulled off by teenagers on Friday the 13th, the investigation would soon point towards practitioners of a ritualistic religion; perhaps voodoo or Palo Mayombe. Despite their efforts to identify the perpetrator and recover Paula's remains, the case quickly grew cold and more than a decade later the answers remain undiscovered.

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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/paula-ream

Transcript

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0:00.0	Introducing Christmas on Disney Plus with the latest releases like Amsterdam
0:05.2	This is all turning out to be a lot larger than any of us
0:08.0	exclusive original series like the Santa Claus is I share the claws have decided to retire
0:14.0	festive family viewing like strange world I've never seen anything like it all for 799 a month
0:20.4	This is Christmas on Disney Plus
0:23.2	It's more where this came from all these plus more streaming this Christmas 18 plus subscription
0:28.5	requires TCC supply
0:38.5	The loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult moments we all hope to avoid but are bound to experience
0:44.5	There's little which can assuage the pain and grief of the family members passing
0:49.5	and yet no matter how expected or tragically surprising it may be
0:53.5	There's one aspect that always seems to make things that much worse
0:57.5	When the lost one is a child
1:00.5	Cemetery's all around the world have sections dedicated to children whose lives were cut short in accidents, crimes and due to illness
1:08.5	These are always the most somber and heartbreaking sections behind those wrought iron gates
1:14.5	In 2010 one family would come to learn that the loss of a beloved sibling may not be the last horror they'd have to endure
1:22.5	48 years after the passing of 9-year-old Paula Reem her surviving sisters were confronted by a monstrous crime for which there's no acceptable motive
1:33.5	On a warm summer day in August the caretaker of the Riverview burial park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania made a horrifying discovery
1:42.5	Sometime during the night an unknown suspect entered the cemetery and dug open the 9-year-old's grave. By the next morning the vault had been cracked open and the child's casket removed
1:55.5	Already having suffered through the loss of their sister once the Reem sister struggled to comprehend who could commit such an atrocious crime against a little girl who had already suffered so much
2:06.5	Investigators began working from the assumption that the crime may have been committed by teenagers or local kids looking to pull off an ill-humored horrifying prank
2:16.5	However a collection of bizarre evidence found nearby in a series of cemetery breakings and vandalism in the area made many wonder if the theft of Paula's remains might have been tied to the arcane rituals of an old religion
2:30.5	This is Trace Evidence Episode 185, the stolen grave of Paula Reem
	...

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