Unsolved Mysteries – The Severed Head

By: Sammi Turano

In Beaver County, located in Western Pennsylvania, is considered a quiet place with little crime or problematic behavior. However, on December 12, 2014, a fifteen year old boy walking through the woods discovers a severed head while going to a deer processing place.

The boy calls the police to report what he found. Police arrive on the scene and investigate. They initially expected it to be a prank, but soon realized it was anything but.

An investigation begins, with Andy Gall taking lead. The head wasn’t decomposed, but the nose had a tip on it, as if it were in a box. The head had curly gray hair.

Police began to look for evidence and to see if a crime had been committed. They also needed to find the identity of the woman, so they took the head to the morgue. The coroner looked at the head closely, initially thinking it could have been fake due to how well preserved it was. However, they realized it was real, they began to realize that the head was cut with a very sharp instrument in a clean manner. They also discovered that she had no eyes, but red balls in their place. This became a big piece of big evidence for them because this is never done, even in a funeral home.

The balls were made in China, so investigators even tried to contact the Chinese police. However, the balls are so common there that it was a dead end.

The search of the area continued two days later, after antlered deer hunting season began. People were questioned, dogs were brought in and a man named Jay Grabner, who lived in the area, was questioned. Jay tried blaming the kid who found the head, saying it was too convenient to be found that way.

 The fifteen-year-old was also questioned again and cooperated the entire time. He was cleared as a suspect.

The big question that remained—where was the rest of the body?

They decided to take DNA from the body and enter it into an ancestry system to find some relatives. It was also sent to the FBI, but everything turned up empty.

Investigators decided to go public in hopes of finding answers…by using a sketch artist, who would draw the head. When that didn’t work, they had the artist make a sculpture of the head. This caused some calls and tips to come in, one of which claimed a crypt was broken into with the head missing.  The woman was named Teresa De Carlo and it was believed to be a satanic crime.

The only issue? The crypt break in was in 1988 and Teresa died in 1952.

However, they decided to see if there was a match using dental records. It was not a match.

More questions come up as to how and why this would happen. A theory of black market body parts came up and was investigated.

The area was searched again and a man who lived close to them said the head was placed there…but the kid who called it in.

It is also learned that Jay and the kid had some sort of friendship that ended due to a falling out. Jay also claimed he befriended a horse named Ginger who had been stabbed and eventually died. Jay was devastated by her death. He believed the kid was behind Ginger’s death.

Jay would then give his theory about how the kid was involved, only to become a suspect himself. A polygraph was given and Jay throws a fit when the results are explained to him. Authorities think he might have had something to do with it, especially due to his actions and rumors swirling about his involvement, but nothing could be proven. There was even speculation that it could have been his mother’s head, but there was no match.

On September 30^th, 2020, Jay had driven on the Ohio turnpike and died by suicide.

A funeral service was held for the Jane Doe whose head was found and the investigation is ongoing.