The Disappearing Skeleton of Roaring Creek

 

Around noon on Thursday, April 22, 1926, a young man named Royal Phillips ventured into the Brush Valley woods, on the grounds of the Roaring Creek Water Company just north of Mount Carmel. He had gone to the woods to assist his brother, Nelson, a state forest inspector, and was walking above the dam towards a safety strip which was being burned at the foot of Patterson Mountain to prevent the spread of forest fires when he stumbled across a human skeleton. After regaining his composure, Royal picked up the skull and raced back to Mount Carmel to report the ghastly find to the chief of police, Abe Morgan. He then took the skull to his home on East Avenue, and so begins a mystery which remains unsolved for nearly a century.

The following morning, Charles Madenfort of the Roaring Creek Water Company went to Mount Carmel and, accompanied by Phillips, ventured to the spot where the discovery was made, only to find that the rest of the skeleton was mysteriously missing. Madenfort and Phillips searched the woods for hours, but were only successful in locating the tree which Phillips had marked the previous afternoon. The perplexed men then turned the skull over to William Judge of Centralia, the deputy coroner of Columbia County. Since the water company lands also included Northumberland County, Coroner J.K. Fisher of Sunbury was also notified.

The Skull With the Golden Teeth

The authorities discovered a hole in the skull, a little more than an inch in diameter, leading some to suspect foul play. Others, however, believed that this hole could have been caused by animals or the elements, since the skull appeared to have lain in the woods, untouched, for several years. Part of the jaw was missing, along with all but two of the dead man's teeth, which further supported the theory that death must have occurred years earlier. The Mount Carmel Item reported that the teeth had been filled with gold. Authorities immediately began to scour the records for missing persons from Brush Valley and the surrounding vicinity, convinced that it would be an easy task to determine who among the missing had their teeth filled with gold. They were sorely mistaken.

The Mystery of One-Legged Sandor

Meanwhile, as word of the discovery spread, locals expressed their opinions as to the identity of the deceased. In nearby Marion Heights, it was whispered that the skeleton belonged to Alexander "Sandor" Kovich, who had been missing from that borough since September of 1921. It was recalled that Kovich, a 28-year-old boarder at the home of John Shiko, had an artificial leg, having one of his legs amputated after falling asleep on the highway in a drunken state and nearly freezing to death. Five years had passed without anyone seeing or hearing from Kovich, who was known to have been depressed over his inability to find work after losing his leg. Those who lived in Marion Heights believed that Sandor had been out for a walk near the Roaring Creek dam when he collapsed from exhaustion. Mrs. Shiko, who was certain that Phillips had found the remains of the missing boarder, stated that if the skull was positively identified, she would ask for the skull and give Kovich a proper funeral.

Others believed that the dead man was James Powers, an elderly man who had disappeared from the mining village of Exchange several years earlier. After his disappearance, search parties combed the mountains, exploring every mine breach and crevice between Mount Carmel and Brush Valley, but their efforts were in vain. As the weekend drew near, the authorities were leaning toward the bones being those of Powers, though they had no tangible evidence to support this theory, and no one seemed to recall whether or not either of these two men had gold fillings.

The possibility of either Kovich or Powers having gold fillings seems highly unlikely, as both men were impoverished coal miners, and the disappearance of the skeleton just hours after its discovery by Royal Phillips only adds to the mystery. Were the remains of an unknown murder victim hastily removed from the scene after word of its discovery reached Mount Carmel? Or had Phillips and Madenfort simply been mistaken about where the find had been made? Ultimately, the case was never cracked, and the missing bones have never been accounted for.

 

Sources:
Mount Carmel Item, April 22, 1926.
Mount Carmel Daily News, April 23, 1926.
Mount Carmel Item, April 24, 1926.