How moss led to the solving a grave-robbing mystery

Posted on March 14, 2026 by Sridhar P

In 2009, a cemetery, located directly outside of Chicago, revealed a scandal. The employees at the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois had been accused of digging up aged graves, shifting the remains to other places within the cemetery and selling the burial plots back. One such piece of evidence was a small knot of moss when the case went to trial in 2015.

Researchers have published the original full scientific account of the case in a new article in the journal Forensic Sciences Research where it is described how exactly moss was used to find that a crime had been committed.

The lead author of the paper, Matt von Konrat, the head of the botany collections at the Field Museum in Chicago, is a follower of detective programs on television (the new paper is called Silent Witness on the BBC), but he never thought that his work would bring him into a criminal case scenario. Around 2009, von Konrat received a call on the phone, which happened to be the FBI, inquiring whether she could assist in identifying a few plants, says von Konrat. The FBI appeared at the Field Museum and gave von Konrat a piece of moss which was discovered eight inches under the earth, and the recovered human remains at the cemetery.

What sort of moss it was, and how long it had been lying in the soil, they wanted to know.

First, von Konrat and his associates had looked at the moss under a microscope and compared it with dried moss specimens in museum collections to conclude that it was taxifolius Fissidens, which is also referred to as a common pocket moss. According to von Konrat, they conducted a survey of the various types of mosses found in different locations around the site of the crime and that type of moss was not present in the area. However, examining the remainder of the cemetery we discovered a large colony of that form of moss growing in the same spot where the investigator thought that the bones had been disturbed.

The investigators did not only require the species of the moss, however, they were also concerned about its age. The defendants to the case argued that someone must have exhumed the bones and reburied them at a later time prior to the defendants commencing working in the cemetery. As the moss was buried with the re-buried bones, the length of time that the moss had been under the ground would be used to help prove the date that the bones were reburied.

“Moss,” says von Konrat, “is a bit of a freak. Mosses are intriguingly physiologically regulated so that although they may be dry and lifeless and preserved, still they may have an active metabolism and some active cells. The level of metabolic activity decays with time, and that would inform us about when a moss sample was harvested.”

The metabolic activity of a plant may be determined by its chlorophyll – the green color that is used to photosynthesize the food. The chlorophyll in the cells of plants deteriorates as they die and more of the cells of plants lose the ability to perform their functions. The authors of the research determined the quantity of the light captured by chlorophyll of the moss specimens in known ages, including fresh and those that have been stashed in the museum collections over the past 14 years. Then they repeated the same test on the moss that was picked at the crime scene. The researchers concluded that the evidence moss was no more than a year or two old- which helped the case against the cemetery employees who in 2015 were finally found guilty of desecrating human remains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_Oak_Cemetery

“Occasionally, there are also cases when the FBI only has to summon experts to assist in the gathering of evidence, conduct analyses, submit the evidence to the prosecutors and testify to their efforts should a conviction be required. Burr Oak Cemetery case was one of those cases when we approached the Chicago Field Museum Botanical Program, which happened to be of invaluable help since plant material within the cemetery provided the key to charge four individuals and convict them,” says Doug Seccombe, a former FBI agent and worked on the case, as well as, a co-author of the new paper.

Von Konrat has been consulted after the Burr Oak Cemetery case on a number of moss cases. However, these cases are quite few in the field of forensic science: in 2025, he and some of his co-authors released another article, looking into the application of mosses and other bryophyte plants as forensic evidence. It was only within the last century that they had discovered a dozen-odd examples.

“Mosses are usually underrated and that is how we hope our research will help to create awareness that there are other groups of plants out there other than flowering plants and they play a very crucial role in society and around us. However, most to the point, we wish to mention this microscopic group of plants as a law enforcement tool. Should we find the means of raising mosses as possible evidence, perhaps this might prove of service to some families in the future.”

‘A moral failure’: Security Council hears about grave violations against children caught in war

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

“From that day on, our home became a travel bag and our path became that of displacement … My childhood was filled with fear and anxiety and people I was deprived of,” she said, speaking via videoconference from Syria.

Seema Sen Gupta, director of child protection and migration at UNICEF, briefs the Security Council.

Sila, now 17, described her experiences during the Syrian Civil War to a meeting of the UN Security Council held on Wednesday to discuss the findings of the Secretary-General’s latest report on Children and Armed Conflict.

The report documented a 25 per cent increase in grave violations against children in 2024, the largest number ever recorded in its 20-year history.

“This year’s report from the Secretary-General once again confirms what too many children already know — that the world is failing to protect them from the horrors of war,” said Sheema Sen Gupta, director of child protection at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“Each violation against children in every country around the globe represents a moral failure.”

The real scale of the harm

The report presented to the Security Council is published annually to document grave violations against children affected by war. It relies entirely on data compiled and verified by the UN, meaning that the real numbers are likely much higher than reported.

In 2024, the report documented a record 41,370 grave violations — including killing and maiming, rape, abduction and the targeting of infrastructure such as schools which supports children.

“Each child struck by these attacks carries a story, a stolen life, a dream interrupted, a future obscured by senseless violence and protracted conflict,” said Virginia Gamba, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, whose office produced the report.

Virginia Gamba, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, briefs the Security Council.

While many of these violations occurred during times of conflict — especially as urban warfare is on the rise — grave violations can persist even after a conflict ends.

They persist in the unexploded ordinances which still pepper the ground.

“Every unexploded shell left in a field, schoolyard, or alley is a death sentence waiting to be triggered,” said Ms. Sen Gupta.

They persist in the spaces which remain destroyed, impeding children from accessing healthcare and education.

And they persist in the trauma and injuries which never fully leave a child.

Scars that never heal

Children who survive the grave violations do not escape unscathed — if they suffered violence, the injuries will stay with them for a lifetime. And even if they were not injured, the trauma remains.

“The physical and psychological scars borne by survivors last a lifetime, affecting families, communities and the very fabric of societies,” said Ms. Gamba.

This is why UNICEF and its partners have worked to provide reintegration programmes and psychosocial support for children who are victims of grave violations.

Sila said that the trauma of her childhood is still with her, and has pushed her to become an advocate for children in conflicts.

“From that moment on, nothing has felt normal in my life. I’ve developed a phobia of any sound that resembles a plane, of the dark, and even of silence,” she said.

‘This cannot be the new normal’

Ms. Gamba called for “unwavering condemnation and urgent action” from the international community in order to reverse the worrying trends which the report details.

“We cannot afford to return to the dark ages where children were invisible and voiceless victims of armed conflict… Please do not allow them to slip back into the shadows of despair,” she said.

Current funding cuts to humanitarian aid are impeding the work of UN agencies and partners to document and respond to grave violations against children.

In light of this, Ms. Sen Gupta’s call for the Security Council was simple: “Fund this agenda.”

She said that the international community cannot allow this to become “a new normal,” and reminded the members of the Security Council that children are not and should never be “collateral damage.”

Despite the devastation which the report detailed, there were “glimmers of hope” according to Ms. Sen Gupta. For example, the Syrian National Army signed an action plan which will prevent the recruitment, killing and maiming of children.

Sila also spoke of hope — she hopes that hers is the last generation to suffer these grave violations.

“I am from a generation that survived. Physically,” she said. “Our bodies survived but our hearts are still living in fear. Please help us replace the word displacement with return, the word rubble with home, the word war with life.”

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‘We are at a point of no return’: grave violations against children surge for third year

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

This number represents a 25 per cent increase from 2023, marking the third consecutive year that violations have increased. 22,495 violations were committed against children themselves while the remaining targeted infrastructure such as schools and humanitarian aid intended for and used by children.

“The cries of 22,495 innocent children who should be learning to read or play ball — but instead have been forced to learn how to survive gunfire and bombings — should keep all of us awake at night,” said the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba.

The report only details violations which could be independently verified by the United Nations, meaning the actual number of grave violations and children affected are likely much higher.

‘Children should not be a casualty of war’

The report attributed the increase to indiscriminate attacks — especially urban warfare — in addition to disregard for peace agreements and deepening humanitarian crises worldwide.

“Children living amidst hostilities are being stripped of their childhood … When we allow this to happen, we are not just failing to protect children – we are taking away their chance to grow up safe, to go to school, and to live a life with dignity and hope,” Ms. Gamba said.

In addition to the broader increase, the number of children subjected to multiple grave violations increased by 17 per cent.

The highest number of violations, 8,554, occurred in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories – more than double the number in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which followed.

Governments ‘blatantly’ ignore international law

The report noted that while non-State actors played an out-sized role in violations against individual children, government actors were the main forces responsible for killing and maiming children, attacking schools and hospitals, and denying humanitarian access.

“Instead of recognizing the special protection afforded to children, governments and armed groups around the world blatantly ignore international law that defines a child as anyone under 18,” Ms. Gamba said.

The report listed eight countries whose government forces violated international law and committed grave violations against children — the DRC, Israel, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Russia.

‘A wake-up call’

In 2024, 16,482 children formerly associated with armed forces or groups received protection or reintegration support, but numbers of violations against children still remain staggeringly high.

The Secretary-General called on all Member States to adhere to their obligations under international law by upholding the rights and special protections of children while also expanding services to treat children who are victims of conflict.

Ms. Gamba reiterated this call, saying that the increase in grave violations should be a “wake-up call” and reminding the international community that indifference to such violations will not bring peace.

“We face a choice that defines who we are: to care, or to turn away … We all share the duty to act—with urgency, with determination—to bring this suffering to an end. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today,” she concluded.