Mummified Body Found In Wall At Historic Oakland Convention Center

A construction crew working on a remodel of a historic building in Oakland stumbled across what authorities described Wednesday as a mummified body buried in a wall.

The remains likely belonging to an adult male were found around 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, buried in a wall that was being reconstructed at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, near the city's downtown, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Raymond Kelly said.

"We found remains best described as mummified," he said. "The conditions in the walls were such that the body was preserved in good conditions."

The body was in the late stages of decay, an official added.

"Upon arrival, officers located what appears to be a deceased adult male, in late stages of decay," Oakland police spokesperson Kim Armstead told Mercury News.

It’s unclear how or when the man’s body got into the wall, but Lt. Kelly confirmed it had likely been there for "several years".

"Any theory is possible," he said. "It could be anything from someone who got in behind the wall and became trapped and died to someone put the person there. God only knows."

The Oakland Police Department’s Homicide Section responded to the scene to investigate and is currently trying to pull fingerprints off the decaying remains in order to find an identity.

"The identity of the victim is unknown at this time and pending further forensic testing," Armstead said.

The convention center, named for the ship-building industrialist who later founded what became one of the nation's largest health insurance companies, Kaiser Permanente, opened in 1914 and was shuttered nearly a century later.

A renovation project approved in 2015 is turning the site into a mixed-use performing arts venue and commercial space.

A similar incident was reported last month when the mummified body of a 70-year-old Italian woman was reportedly found in her home in northern Italy nearly two years after her death

The decomposing remains of Marinella Beretta, who reportedly had no living relatives, was found sitting in a chair in the living room of her home in Prestino, near Lake Como in northern Italy on Friday, Feb. 4,

Officers made the gruesome discovery after they went to Beretta’s home while they were carrying out a house call to warn Beretta regarding a tree that had fallen into her "overgrown" garden during high winds in Lombardy.

When nobody answered the door, they entered the residence and found Beretta's corpse sitting in a chair in the living room. The circumstances that led to her death remain unclear. However, a medical examiner revealed that she possibly passed away toward the end of 2019, based on the level of decay in her body.

According to a report conducted by the national statistics institute (ISTAT) in 2018, it was found that nearly 40 percent of over 75-year-olds in Italy live alone with no relatives or friends to turn to in case of need.