Continued: Second rediscovered skull is identified

The second of three skulls found in the garage of a former assistant Hennepin County medical examiner has been identified as that of a Virginia, Minn., wife and mother found dead in northeastern Minnesota in 1972.

Dorothy Curran's skeletal remains were found in a pine thicket, in jeans and a sweater and so badly decomposed that authorities never determined how she died.

Her body was examined at the Hennepin County medical examiner's office. But it was returned home without the skull, unbeknownst to grieving family members.

In a twist of events eerily similar to those in the case of Ricky McGuire, whose skull was the first one identified, Curran mysteriously disappeared one night and was found dead several months later. Both skulls were found by the late Dr. Kenneth Osterberg's daughter in the garage of his home in Mentor, Minn., last summer.

The news of the skulls' discovery reached Ricky's family and St. Louis County officials on April Fool's Day.

"The overall circumstances ... were certainly odd," said sheriff's Sgt. Dirk Davis of Curran's case.

Curran, who was 36 when she disappeared, was last seen at about 8:30 p.m. Sept. 28, 1971 in Virginia's business district with a local man who was neither a friend nor a relative, Davis said, refusing to elaborate.

On Oct. 22, her husband, Jack Curran, reported her missing. He said she routinely visited friends or relatives for weeks at a time.

Jack Curran had five children. It's uncertain how many of the children were Dorothy Curran's biological children or how many lived with the couple.

Archival articles show that a man found her body on June 8, 1972, about 50 feet off of Hwy. 53, 12 miles south of Eveleth, Minn.

Records from the time are so scant that authorities aren't sure whether to characterize the case as closed, open or forgotten. They do not know if her death was the result of a crime.

Some time after his wife's body was found, Jack Curran moved to San Diego's Mission Beach neighborhood with at least two of his children. On May 16, 1976, he was beaten to death by his hammer- and baseball-bat-wielding daughter and son, 16 and 14 years old, respectively.

It's unclear if that murder was related to Dorothy Curran's death. The teenagers were charged with murder but convicted of one count each of voluntary manslaughter, said San Diego homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney.

Many of the people who had first-hand knowledge of Dorothy Curran's case are dead.

"It is, oh boy, it's certainly difficult to try to look back in time and then to fill in some of the blanks and attempt to relocate paperwork and records," Davis said.

That's where Curran's case differs sharply from McGuire's. Ricky, 17, of Bemidji, went missing Nov. 17, 1977, and was found dead on April 8, 1978.

A high school friend pleaded guilty in 1980 to shooting him three times in the head and chest. He served prison time and later died in a boating accident.

There is no record of anyone having seen Curran while she was missing, and no known arrests in the case.

St. Louis County chief medical examiner Dr. Thomas Uncini will have Curran's skull examined by an anthropologist in hopes of determining a cause and manner of death. Afterward, it will be returned to her family.

One of Curran's sons declined to comment Thursday.

McGuire's skull was reburied with his body this week.

It's uncertain how and why Osterberg came to possess the three skulls, although one theory is that he kept them for educational purposes. The third skull was not identified in the 1970s and will remain at the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.

"What I know about Dr. Osterberg is he really loved to teach ... and probably recognized that some of these cases had extraordinary teaching opportunities," said Hennepin County medical examiner Dr. Andrew Baker.

Body parts were commonly kept without permission in the 1970s, Uncini said, a practice that would never occur today.

Authorities will conduct a thorough search of Osterberg's property later this year.

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391

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