A construction crew was working on the remodel of the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center near downtown Oakland when at around 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday, contractors discovered an unidentified, decaying body in the walls of the building.
Authorities were dispatched quickly after. “Upon arrival, officers located what appears to be a deceased adult male, in late stages of decay,” a media officer for the Oakland Police Department told Newsweek.
Lieutenant Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office told NBC News that the body was “preserved in good conditions.”
“We found remains best described as mummified,” Kelly said. “The conditions in the walls were such that the body was preserved in good conditions.”
The victim’s identity will be discovered pending further forensic testing, Oakland Police told Newsweek. Authorities, including the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office coroner, are hoping to determine the identity and cause of death in the case. Police said their homicide section responded to the scene.
Kelly said that “Under ideal conditions, a body will harden and become like leather, similar to a mummy,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
It is also unclear just how long the victim’s remains were trapped in the walls.
“Any theory is possible,” Kelly told NBC News. “It could be anything from someone who got in behind the wall and became trapped and died to someone put the person there. God only knows.”
The Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center first opened in 1914 and was shuttered in 2005. Plans to renovate the building to be used as commercial space with a performance art center were approved by the city of Oakland in 2015.
Based on the initial construction of the building, an educated estimate could date the body to being over 100 years old. However, it remains unclear how long the body was actually preserved in the building.
Dorothy Lazard, the former head librarian of the Oakland History Center, told KGO News that the Convention Center was a historic concert and event venue for a long time.
“James Brown performed there, the Grateful Dead performed there over 50 times, Elvis performed there, there were political lectures. There were controversial events, minister Louis Farrakhan gave speeches there, Martin Luther King spoke there,” Lazard told KGO.
Earlier this week, Newsweek reported on another “mummy” that has served as an object of worship in Japan will go under an examination. A team of scientists in Japan announced they will be taking a closer look at the so-called “mermaid” mummy at the Enjuin Temple in the city of Asakuchi. The mummy appears to have the upper body of a monkey and the lower body of a fish and is believed to be 300 years old, officials said.
Forensic officers will continue to work to identify the body using dental records and hope that the body is preserved well enough that fingerprints can be taken as well.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Homicide Section at 510-238-3821 or the TIP LINE at 510-238-7950.
Newsweek reached out to the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau for comment.
