Credit: New Castle County Police Department
In June 2011, when human remains were discovered in Wilmington, Delaware, those involved with the case considered the worst—and most common—scenario: a woman was murdered and her body was dumped in the woods.
Imagine investigators’ shock when, 15 years later, DNA finally identified the woman as Hannah Graham Kleitz, a 29-year-old woman who died in 1907 from a medical illness. Her body was not left in the woods to cover up a murder in the 2000s. Rather, she was interred in a mausoleum nearly 120 years earlier, before her remains were unlawfully accessed and desecrated in 2002.
2026, 2011 and 1907
As part of the 2011 investigation, a forensic anthropological analysis determined the partial skeletal remains belonged to a white female, estimated to be between 25 and 50 years old. Investigators entered the case information NamUs and extracted a DNA profile from the remains, which was entered into CODIS. Despite these efforts, investigators were unable to identify the woman.
In 2019, the New Castle County Police Cold Case Squad reopened the investigation. Detectives obtained a three-dimensional scan of the skull and sent it to George Mason University forensic art professor Joe Mullins, who built a facial reconstruction.
At this time, detectives also identified the case as a candidate for forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG). Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Detective Steve Smugeresky led the genealogical research.
In January 2026, investigators were notified of a potential familial match. A relative told police that the mausoleum and grave of a family member at Riverview Cemetery in Wilmington had been broken into and desecrated in 2002, with remains removed that were similar to those recovered in 2011.
With the family's support, investigators exhumed the disturbed grave, and a DNA comparison confirmed the remains found in 2011 belonged to Hannah Graham Kleitz, who died in 1907 at age 29 from a medical illness.
On Aug. 27, 2026, Kleitz's extended family gathered at Riverview Cemetery with members of the New Castle County Division of Police, forensic investigators from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and others who worked the case to return her remains to her mausoleum.
No arrests have been announced in connection with the 2002 grave robbery. Police say that investigation remains open.