A CREPPY glass coffin covering the body of a 150-year-old young woman shrouded in mystery has amazed people for decades.
The unusual window in an abandoned graveyard shows the face of a woman who was said to be beautiful even in death.
The tomb has been closed off to visitors following an accident that damaged the preserved body[/caption]
Historians believe the woman was buried in the unusual coffin as her family wanted to show off her ‘beautiful face’[/caption]
This underground tomb belonged to a woman who officials believe was named Sophie Nance and died in 1853.
Other than her name and the unusual burial, Sophie’s past has been a tale of local legends and eerie mysteries.
Her body lies below the Washington Street United Methodist Church in Columbia, South Carolina.
Although abandoned, the graveyard has long been a macabre local landmark.
The glass window in her cast-iron tomb reveals the eerie face of the young lady, though to have been 28 years old when she died.
Despite the age, her youth was preserved through the air-tight vault Sophie was placed in.
Her teeth, nose, and head remain mostly preserved in an almost mummified form.
The Fisk coffin meant her body was protected from the outside elements and stopped the decomposition process.
This tomb would have been unusual and elaborate for the time so historians believe her death must have been a shock to her loved ones at the time, according to The State.
Church historian Michael Broome said: “Evidently she was a beautiful young woman.
“Her husband was infatuated with her, as I guess her other friends and family were, and they felt the horror of her loss.”
A recent accident had closed the eerie remains off from public view after a church visitor smashed the window that protected Sophie’s youth for over 100 years.
Broome said: ”The air pressure had been very effective for well over 100 years, but when it was broken, that didn’t help Sophie’s remains.”
Mould grew on her face, which turned into a creepy white substance resembling a mask.
Broome added: “The viewing plate was struck and cracked, and the seal was broken.
“Some unfortunate decomposition started at a very rapid pace, so from what I can gather, there’s now a white mass that was where her face had been.”
Church historians have been unable to confirm more about Sophie’s life and why she died at such a young age.
They believed the young woman had a husband and two young children, aged two and six, who were buried in conventional tombs nearby.
Researchers are unaware of why her children also died at such a young age.
Sophie’s body remained alone underground after the church relocated the graves to construct a new building in the 1920s but no relatives of hers stepped forward to inquire about moving the body.
Before this move, her face would have been openly accessible and visible to the public without having to go underground.
The crypt is over 150-years-old[/caption]