Naman Shrestha
In the episode titled ‘The Severed Head’ of Netflix’s ‘Unsolved Mysteries,’ the viewers are provided with a detailed account of the mysterious severed head that showed up in a wooded area of Pennsylvania’s Beaver County in December 2014, leaving the investigators as well as the community puzzled. During the investigation, a local man named Jay Grabner, who resided near the area where the head was found, was considered a potential suspect in the case.
Jay Grabner Was a Resident of Economy Borough, Pennsylvania
On March 16, 1950, John J Gradner Jr. and Zelia Evelyn Giles Grabner gave birth to John J. “Jay” Grabner III in the Rochester borough of Pennsylvania’s Beaver County. While growing up, he had the loving company of his twin sister, Evonne G. Sinclair, and another sister named Bonnie G. Howe. His first marriage to Cecilia Francis did not turn out how the couple expected it to, so they decided to part ways. However, Jay managed to find love yet again when his path crossed with Lauren Guthrie’s. Jay hoped to settle once and for all and the two proceeded to tie the knot. Nevertheless, even his second marriage wasn’t devoid of cracks as Lauren became estranged with time.
Jay was very passionate about cars, especially the antique ones. He also used to have a dog named Jackie to keep him company, but sadly, he passed away. Professionally, he was a railroad engineer, and after retiring, he served as the area director for the National Railroad Retirees Association. At some point in his life, he moved to a house in Economy Borough, where he owned a horse named Ginger. He also ended up befriending a teenage boy. He used to call him to his residence to kill time and indulge in some fun activities. However, the duo was broken apart after an ugly fallout, resulting in Jay not calling him over to his house anymore.
Jay Grabner Was a Person of Interest in the Case of the Unidentified Severed Head
Just a while after they stopped talking, his horse Ginger was found stabbed to death near his house in the woods. The retired railway engineer’s first suspicion went into his former teenage friend, whom he thought took out the bitterness between them on the innocent horse. In an otherwise peaceful area of Economy Borough in Pennsylvania, the same 15-year-old teenager found the severed head of an old woman, who might be in her 50s or 60s, on December 12, 2014, while walking through the woods off of Ridge Road Extension. Immediately, he informed the police about the same and cooperated. Interestingly, Jay’s house was not very far from the site where the head was discovered. Alongside the teenage boy, even Jay became a person of interest in the case.
The victim’s head, which was seemingly embalmed, appeared to be rather well-preserved by whoever placed it in the middle of the woods. The head had seemingly been cleanly sawed from the body. When the investigators brought Jay in for questioning, he told the police that it was possible that his former teenage friend, who found the head, placed it there himself. Interestingly, when the authorities searched Jay’s residence, they discovered a telescope in one of the rooms, and the spot where the head was found could be seen clearly with the help of it. Despite having suspicions about him, the detectives could not charge him with anything due to a lack of concrete evidence.
For Reasons Unknown, Jay Grabner Took His Own Life in 2020
Talking to CBS News about the incident, Jay Grabner claimed that the head was placed in the woods not long before it was found. He elaborated, “Because the animals, and there’s so many raccoons and coyotes and crows, and so many other birds here, birds of prey that would have hauled it down into the woods, you would have never found it.” He added, “It’s very puzzling, to say the least. How you could just come up with a human head? It’s beyond belief. It’s very disturbing to a lot of people in the area.” The case went cold as the police could not find any leads.
Several years later, on September 30, 2020, Jay Grabner decided to pull up his pickup trunk along an overpass on the Ohio Turnpike. The 70-year-old man got out of the vehicle and jumped off the overpass right in front of an oncoming truck, losing his life. At the time of his passing, he was the Director of the National Association of Retired & Veteran Railway Employees, Inc. (NARVRE) Area 2. The organization highlighted his several years of service and contributions while grieving his loss. To this day, no one has been able to figure out why he decided to take his own life.
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