All homes have a history, which includes the memories,

hopes and dreams of all who have lived there.

But this home, in a quiet, upscale neighborhood in suburban New York,

held something more.

In a steel drum, stored in a crawl space, was a secret that someone had hoped would

last a lifetime.

September 2nd, 1999 was moving day for the Cohen family in Jericho, New York.

Before leaving that day, Ronald Cohen noticed that the sanitation workers hadn't picked up all of his trash.

A note on a large steel drum said it wasn't removed because of its weight.

Cohen had no idea what was inside since it had been in a crawl space

in his home since the day he moved in nine years earlier.

When he broke the seal, Cohen was overcome moved in nine years earlier.

When he broke the seal, Cohen was overcome by a terrible stench.

Inside, he saw what appeared to be a human hand and a lady's shoe.

Local police transported the drum to the Nassau County Morg,

where all of its contents were carefully removed for forensic examination.

Inside were the mummified remains of a young woman.

There were also some plastic pellets, a green plastic flower stem with leaves, and a woman's pocketbook which was submerged in a mysterious brownish green liquid

at the bottom of the drum. The liquid had virtually destroyed the contents of the pocketbook,

which might have identified the victim.

The cause of death appeared to be blunt forced trauma to the head.

It was most noteworthy to the body and the cause of death

...