Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of death and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries Volume 4 looks into the case of a severed head in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and the supposed involvement of a man named Jay Grabner. Episode 3, titled “The Severed Head,” looks back into the mystery of Jane Doe’s human head found in rural Pennsylvania. On December 12, 2014, a teenage boy reportedly found the severed head of an elderly gray-haired woman. Due to a lack of evidence, authorities could never identify the Jane Doe.
Detectives believed someone with medical expertise had severed the head from the body and then staged the scene. Moreover, it was preserved using embalming fluid, and the eyes were replaced with red rubber balls. Authorities even believed they found out the individual’s true identity, causing them to think it was the result of satanic activities. However, all attempts to determine Jane Doe’s identity have failed to produce conclusive outcomes over the years.
Unsolved Mysteries examines how authorities’ only lead in the severed head case was a man named Jay Grabner. After learning he was an expert seller and tradesman of human body parts, they suspected Grabner’s involvement.
Unsolved Mysteries The Severed Head: What happened to Jay Grabner?
The Cinemaholic stated that Jay Grabner, a potential suspect in the Beaver County severed head case, died by suicide in 2020. CBS News further reported that Unsolved Mysteries put the strange case under the national spotlight, hoping to find answers. Economy Borough Police Chief Michael O’Brien claimed that the mystery surrounding the Jane Doe and the head has haunted them for a decade now. Chief O’Brien told KDKA-TV, “It was something that I had never seen, as well as the other officers that were there.”
On December 12, 2014, a teenage boy stumbled upon the embalmed severed head in the woods off Mason Road. The head belonged to an older woman who possibly died while in her 50s or 60s. Police found no evidence near the head or signs of animal activity. According to Netflix Tudum, Andrew Gall, chief of detectives at the Beaver County D.A. Office, called it “one of the scarcest” and “strangest” crime scenes. They found the head on top of leaves just about 31 feet from the road.
A CBS report from 2014 stated that Jay Grabner was one of the first few people to arrive at the scene. However, over the course of the investigation, authorities considered him a potential suspect. Grabner was a retired railroad engineer and lived not far from the area where the teenage boy found the head. He claimed, “We found out that there was a head lying right down there where that post is.”
Grabner had added, “Because the animals, and there’s so many raccoons and coyotes and crows, and so many other birds here, birds of prey that would have hauled it down into the woods, you would have never found it.” He called the discovery “very puzzling to say the least. How you could just come up with a human head. It’s beyond belief. It’s very disturbing to a lot of people in the area.” At the time, Jay Grabner was not a potential suspect in the case.
Detectives attempted to identify Jane Doe, but DNA failed to find conclusive results because of the embalming fluid. Additionally, an autopsy revealed that the woman’s eyeballs were missing and had been replaced with tiny red rubber balls. Investigators, however, believed they had identified the woman after learning about Theresa DeCarlo’s vandalized crypt. They found that DeCarlo, who died in the ’50s, was missing her head in the coffin. The area police believed the removal of her head was likely for satanic activities.
The attempt proved unsuccessful when following a dental examination proves unfruitful. Reportedly, Jane Doe had signs of modern dentistry in her mouth, which failed to link her to Theresa DeCarlo. But, authorities continued investigating the bizarre case with little progress over the years.
Ultimately, detectives found a potential suspect, Jay Grabner, who resided close to the area where the severed head was found. Authorities began investigating Grabner after them, asking them to look into the teenage boy who discovered the scene. They learned that the boy and Grabner had been friends and that the latter was trying to get revenge after they had a falling out.
Authorities also started looking into Jar Grabner and learned of his involvement in the sale and trade of human body parts. More shockingly, they found that Grabner had stored his dead dog in a freezer. As suspicions concerning his role began to surface, the retired railway engineer took a polygraph test and failed.
Then, in September 2020, several years after the severed head discovery, Jay Grabner died by suicide. He jumped off an overpass in front of a truck, leaving all questions about the case unanswered.
Unsolved Mysteries Volume 4 is now streaming on Netflix.
