The Incan Woman

Panzer et. al, PLOS ONE 2014

Allegedly, in the 1890s, during her trip to South America Princess Therese of Bavaria received two mummies. It's unknown what had happened to one of the mummies, but the other was that of an Incan woman. Parts of the legs of the woman were destroyed during WWII, but still remain well intact other than her missing legs.  She was donated to the Anatomical Institute of the Ludwig-Maximilian University in 1904. 

It was initially thought that she was a European bog body at first. After an Analysis of her hair though it showed that she was from South American Origins. This made sense because the braided style of her hair was not common in Europe. The bands holding her hair together were made from alpaca or llama hair and had a high diet of seafood and maize. This likely means she is from near the coastline of Peru or Chile, but there was a change in diet the 10 months before her death. She either changed her diet or moved from the area where she lived. She was likely buried in the dry sands of the Atacama Desert to preserve her body. 

It's believed that she was a pre-Columbian Incan woman.  She was between the ages of 20 to 25-years-old. 

A CT scan of the woman shows that she was murdered. It is unknown if she was a sacrifice or not, but it was likely.  She had been killed by being hit with a sharp object several times to the front of her skull. The skull bones were found in her brain cavity. However, even if she wasn't killed she was dying from Chagas disease caused from parasites. 

SOURCES:

National Library of Medicine

Archeology

Mummipedia

Sarita the Mummy

In September of 1996, the body of a teenage girl was found on the East face atop the 18,070 ft Andean peak in Sara Sara, Peru. She was discovered by Johan Reinhard, a senior researcher at Mountain Institute in West Virginia, and José Antonio Chavez, dean of archaeology at the Catholic University in Arequipa, Peru. It was found that the girl was a sacrifice 500 years ago for the Inca Gods including the sun moon and mountain. There was evidence that Sarita had been killed with a blow to the head. 

Sarita was a teenage girl around 14-years-old. She was slender and weighed 80 lbs at the time. She was healthy and her bones and teeth were strong. She had a well-balanced diet and had fasted the day before her death. 

She was found in the fetal position and placed on a platform along with three gold and silver statuettes and a small bundle of coca leaves, these were traditional offerings to the mountain gods. There were 7 more offerings with her, a seven-inch tall silver female statuette wrapped in textiles, one silver and gold male statuette, a female figurine, a llama carved out of spodylus shell, and on a nearby platform was one gold and one silver llama.

Because Sarita had been left on the sun-drenched east face of the mountain, her body had decomposed. Reinhard and his team moved the mummy to the snow-covered south face to freeze it before a 20-hour journey to the conservation laboratory at Catholic University, where Sarita will be preserved and eventually unwrapped.

SOURCES:
Archeology

PNAS

Crystal Links

Anonymous Artist: Amarilis (Poet)

Amarilis is a pseudonym for a poet from the late 16th century Peru. The poet (believed to have been a woman) wrote a single known poem an epístola to Belardo. They sent the poem to Spanish playwright Lope de Vega whom they supposedly admired. He would then publish the poem in La Filomena in 1621.

Not much is known about Amarilis but it is believed that they were a female.

SOURCES:
Revolvy
Wikipedia

Murder of William Neyra

On April 7, 1984, 30-year-old William Neyra was last seen it wasn't till the 21st he was reported missing to the Montréal police. His vehicle was found in front of his home in Montréal, Quebec home. William was an immigrant from Peru and had been living in Canada since June of 1982. At the time he was unemployed.

On April 22, 1984, William's body was found along the Riviere Richelieu in front of 860, Chemin des Patriotes in Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu. He had been stabbed in the back and died due to it and his body was likely dumped there. It's likely his body had been in the water for 3 or 4 days.

Robbery is not likely the reason for his murder. A newspaper article claims His wallet with money inside and a small amount of cocaine was recovered from his body. 

SOURCES:

Government du Québec

The Gazette (Newspapers.com)