Ghost Tales than Buried With Honors

Ghost stories at Buffalo-area museum lead to finding, burying veterans' remains

Roses adorn the urns of the cremated remains of seven servicemen at Bath National Cemetery in Bath, N.Y. on Friday. The remains were found ten years ago in a storage room of a museum that was a former funeral home in Buffalo.

September 24, 2010 - BUFFALO, N.Y. — The cremated remains of seven World War I, World War II and Korean War-era veterans were buried with military honors Friday in a long-overdue ceremony that organizers say was set in motion by ghost tales at a New York museum.

The ashes were among 24 sets of remains discovered in a basement closet 10 years ago as the Iron Island Museum was settling into its new address, a former funeral home.

The building’s former owners quickly picked up the remains, labeled only with names and dates of death. Soon afterward, museum volunteers reported seeing shadowy “people,” and hearing voices and the sound of aluminum chairs being banged about. A framed picture of a child on Santa’s lap would be found under — instead of on top of — the table where it is displayed.

“Strange things were happening all the time,” said Linda Hastreiter, president of the small museum that features a mix of railroad, military and other items saved by neighborhood preservationists.

A friend suggested in 2007 that the museum call paranormal investigators. Last year, a psychic claimed to detect the presence of a man named Edgar, which led Hastreiter to the list of identities from the remains, and the name Edgar L. Zernicke.

Hastreiter dug deeper into Zernicke’s life and found he’d served in the Marines from 1925 to 1929, fought in the Sandino Rebellion in Nicaragua in 1928 and later spent four years in the Navy before returning to Buffalo. He died in 1992 at age 87, twice widowed and a retired tool and die maker. {read rest}