After 145 Years, Three-year-Old Girl Buried Again

After 145 years of burial at a home in San Francisco, the body of a girl found holding a rose in a small metal casket was laid to rest again.

There were dozens of community members, cemetery workers and event organizers in black. They all attended her burial at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

The girl's body seemed to be very well preserved. It was found May 9 in a coffin that was so airtight that it preserved even her golden locks, alabaster skin as well as a rose she held on her chest. The metal and glass coffin was dug out from a concrete garage floor during remodeling of a house in Richmond District.

"It looked like her mother had just laid her in there yesterday," Elissa Davey said Monday. Davey runs Garden of Innocence, which helps to bury the bodies of those children who are not identified. She performs her act with the help of donations and services.

"She still had her eyelashes, she still had her skin," Davey said.

The girl was buried at the age of 3. Dubbed Miranda Eve, she had 100 attendees, with a local poet reading out an original work to honor her. The ceremony was led by a volunteer minister.

Barbara and Heather Reynolds came all the way from Sacramento to be part of the ceremony.

"I just felt that she needed to have people here," Heather Reynolds said. "The amount of people who came forward is amazing."

About 30,000 who had at first been buried in San Francisco's Odd Fellows Cemetery were moved in the early 1920s.

"I rejoice that you've found it in your hearts to come offer your love, your care and to be here for this little girl," retired Minister Allan Musterer told the crowd. "The discovery of Miranda is such a happening outside of what anyone could deem as normal."

The discovery has aroused a lot of interest across the country. Her DNA will be tested.

Elissa Davey, who founded the Garden of Innocence charity, helped set up her reburial.

"It was tough, very tough," Davey said about the process, as she began to cry. "But she is not just our child. She is everyone's."