Unsolved Mysteries' Severed Head Case: True Story & Updates

Summary Unsolved Mysteries Season 4 delves into a chilling case of a severed head found in rural Pennsylvania in 2015.

The revived Netflix series focuses on one case per hour, offering new theories and interviews to uncover the truth.

Authorities struggled to identify the embalmed head, which led to disturbing details and unresolved questions.

This article discusses graphic details of a gruesome discovery involving a severed head.

Unsolved Mysteries season 4 took on the case of a severed head found in a rural Pennsylvania county in 2015. The anthology series was revived on Netflix in 2021 and preserves the legacy of the original Unsolved Mysteries by providing information about unexplained deaths long after the trail has gone cold. While the original series, which ran from 1987 to 2010, featured several cases in each episode, the Netflix revival focuses in depth on one case per hour. Each episode features interviews with people involved in the original investigation, re-enactments, and new theories and information that might help solve the case.

Unsolved Mysteries features stories from all over the United States. The purpose of the deep dives it does is to get these cases before the public so that someone who may have seen something can come forward. Many of the best Unsolved Mysteries episodes involve cases that seem completely unsolvable and feature fascinating details that were not explored during the original investigation into the case. The recent episode featuring a severed head is one of the most gruesome, shocking, and mysterious cases the show has taken on.

Related Unsolved Mysteries: 10 Best Case Theories That Might Be True, According To Reddit Fans have plenty of theories about what actually happened in the unsolved cases on Unsolved Mysteries, and they aren't afraid to share them.

An Unidentified Severed Head Was Found In Beaver County, PA in 2014

A Teenage Boy Made The Gruesome Discovery

A teenage boy in Beaver County, Pennsylvania made a gruesome discovery on December 12, 2014. As Unsolved Mysteries documents, the boy found a human head sitting on top of some leaves on the side of a road while walking. The head had been laid atop the leaves, which suggested it had been deposited recently. There were no other physical signs of what had happened to the person the head belonged to, such as blood or bullet holes.

Authorities initially expected the 911 call the boy made was a prank and were surprised to find a real human head at the scene.

The head appeared to belong to an older, gray-haired woman who was between the ages of 60 to 80. Authorities quickly determined that whoever had removed it had medical expertise, as it had been severed from the body perfectly. Its placement on the leaves, exactly 31 feet from the road, suggested that the killer had deliberately staged the scene so the head would be found. Furthermore, it had been perfectly preserved using embalming fluid, so there was no way of telling whether the victim had been killed recently or years earlier.

The preservation of the head made it impossible to identify the victim. The embalming fluid had eliminated any DNA on the head, and no other body parts were found in the area, making it even harder for law enforcement to determine the name of the person who had been killed. Police were not able to determine an exact age, which made it even less likely they would be able to match Jane Doe to missing persons' records.

Why The Police Considered Satanic Activity With The Jane Doe

They Made Another Gruesome Discovery While Examining The Head

Although the head had been meticulously preserved, there was one horrifying detail the police were yet to discover: the eyes were missing and had been replaced by red rubber balls. After making this discovery, the police turned to various experts in dealing with human remains and learned that this was not a usual procedure for preserving a body. Thus, they attempted to trace the origins of the red rubber balls without success.

Additionally, the police investigation led to the discovery that a 1988 crypt had been vandalized and the head removed from the body that lay inside. Police suspected Satanic activity in this case; they also thought that the recently discovered head could have been the one that had been stolen from the crypt. However, dental records testing on the severed head ruled out this possibility, leaving investigators no closer to determining who the Jane Doe was than they had before.

Why A Forensic Artist Was Brought In For The Jane Doe

Police Did Not Want To Release The Graphic Photos Of The Severed Head

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Since the police weren't able to identify the Jane Doe, they needed the public's help. Typically, police release photos of unidentified persons to the public to aid them in finding out who they are. However, it would be in poor taste and possibly counterproductive to provide photos of a severed head, especially considering that the eyes had been removed. Thus, police instead hired a forensic artist, Michele Vitali, to make an accurate replica of the head using clay. This allowed them to share the basic details of the severed head without providing unnecessarily graphic visuals that could upset the public.

Vitali was unable to perfectly replicate the severed head. The only way to do so would have been to include the graphic details the police were trying to keep private. However, the sketches and sculptures she made were broadcast on local television in the hopes that someone would recognize the head from these replicas. Unfortunately, this activity did not result in any significant leads and the decapitation victim continues to be one of Unsolved Mysteries' most burning questions about this case.

What Happened to Jay Grabner

This Potential Suspect Completed Suicide

Police hoped they had caught a break in the case when Jay Grabner contacted them. Grabner lived across the street from where the severed head had been found. He attempted to put suspicion onto the teenage boy who had found the head, but this backfired, leading to police interest in Grabner as a suspect. The police learned that Grabner and the boy used to be friends but that Grabner swore revenge after a falling out. Additionally, he was an expert in the sale and trade of human body parts and kept his deceased dog in his freezer.

Grabner's weird interest in human body parts and his connection to the boy who had found the head led to police investigating his connection to the case more closely. Grabner agreed to take a polygraph test, but failed it, demonstrating he was not being truthful about what he knew about the severed head. However, the police investigation came to an abrupt end when Grabner jumped off an overpass, ending his life.

Polygraphs are not always reliable and are not admissible in court, so failing one is not definitive proof that Grabner was involved in the murder.

Unsolved Mysteries Hopes Someone Will Come Forward

Unsolved Mysteries featured this story in the hopes that someone would come forward, but nothing has changed in the case yet. However, as more people watch the episode, someone may contact the show about the severed head. Unsolved Mysteries has a large platform it uses to bring attention to cases like this one so that they can finally be solved.

The episode includes contact information about the case, so someone could come forward at any time now that it is available on Netflix.

Unsolved Mysteries helped find kidnapped girl Kayla Unbehaun alive, so its coverage of the severed head case may also lead to answers. It's unknown whether this Jane Doe had any family who has been searching for her. If so, getting answers will help give them closure even though it would be heartbreaking to learn that she is dead. The Unsolved Mysteries episode includes contact information about the case, so someone could come forward at any time now that it is available on Netflix.