On a recent sunny fall afternoon a few weeks before Halloween, I found myself in a graveyard. On my lunch break I made my way over to what’s now called the Eau Claire County Old Orchard Cemetery, a small plot on Eau Claire’s west side that served as a burial ground for those who died at the now-vanished county asylum and “poor farm” nearby – as well as others who had nowhere else to find eternal rest. Among the former group was probably Marit Sletmo, an immigrant ancestor of Eau Claire native Ann Lowry. Marit’s life inspired Lowry’s debut novel, The Blue Trunk, which you can read about in our most recent issue.

While Marit likely died in the early 20th century, others have been buried at Old Orchard Cemetery much more recently. They include two unidentified men whose decomposed remains were found inside a shipping crate being unloaded at the Menards Distribution Center outside Eau Claire on Sept. 6, 2001. Workers found them when unloading tile shipped from Italy, and ultimately they were believed to have been Romanians who risked – and lost – their lives trying to smuggle themselves into the United States.

During my visit I spotted the simple grave marker – bearing the names John A. Doe and John B. Doe – and was reminded of the sad, unresolved tale. With no one to claim the bodies, authorities buried them at Old Orchard.

If you live in the Chippewa Valley and you’ve never heard this story, it’s probably because of when it hit the news: just days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which overshadowed everything else. Twenty-three years later, the mystery of the John Does remains, right in the middle of Eau Claire.