In Ancient Egypt- the mummification process was a technical and sacred ritual- done to preserve the body --but in Illinois- apparently someone accidentally did the same thing - without trying."My dad was in the crawlspace of my brother's house here and he was doing some electrical work and found it underneath in the crawlspace," Sara Supancic said.
It used to be Jasper- a Yorkshire terrier- that went missing in 1976. Now it's a mummy. So how did Jasper go from a dog to a mummified mutt? "Because in the crawlspace it's a cool dry area and there is no bacteria, no fungus, no bugs or anything to help decompose it, so basically it just kind of dried up and preserved how it is," Supancic said.
Supancic's brother checked the neighborhood and found out the former owners live next door. Obviously, they didn't want Jasper back, so Supancic had another idea. "I'm going to take it back to my classroom- show it to my students- have it on display because it's a one of a kind find." A find in really good condition considering "I think, especially in Southern Illinois, where it's so humid and we have so many bugs and everything that its just conditions had to be exactly right for this to happen and that's really unusual."
Besides the dog's size. - its smell makes it even more surprising. " It feels like paper mache- or it feels like a wasps nest- its just kind of dry papery- little bit harder than paper maybe.
It sounds kind hollow," Supancic said.
WSIL TVBy Rachel Gartner
