Woman bound over for trial in skull-theft case

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A 33-year-old woman has been ordered to stand trial on felony charges that she stole two human skulls from a Carson City cemetery.

Justice of the Peace John Tatro ruled Friday that there's sufficient evidence to send Janice Marie Hershey to trial in Carson District Court.

"This is one of the most bizarre, sickest and weirdest cases I've ever seen," Tatro said. "There's plenty of evidence to show Miss Hershey was right smack dab in the middle of it."

Hershey will be arraigned later this month on two counts of grave robbery and a count of burglary, prosecutors said.

Hershey's former boyfriend, David Shaughnessy, 38, has pleaded guilty to one felony court of grave robbery and will be sentenced Oct. 18.

Shaughnessy told investigators he and Hershey went to Lone Mountain Cemetery around Halloween 1997 and pried open a crypt containing the remains of pioneer Carson City prosecutor Patrick Henry Clayton and his wife, Susan.

Hershey is accused of entering through a small opening in the crypt and removing their skulls with a hammer and chisel.

Linda Compau, an acquaintance of the defendants, testified Friday about a conversation she had with Hershey in 1998.

"(Hershey) said she went inside the crypt and chiseled the heads off at the collarbones," Compau said. "She said it was hard to get (the skulls) loose.

"They were there most of the night; it was getting daylight when they left. They were going to sell one of the heads for drugs. I don't know what they were going to do with the other one."

Shaughnessy told investigators he sold Susan Clayton's skull to Nanette Birdsell, 36, of Stagecoach, who is accused of using it for a satanic ritual.

Birdsell is charged with one count of purchasing the remains of a dead body. Her preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday was postponed.

Shaughnessy was arrested July 16 outside a Carson City motel, where he was seen approaching people and asking them if they wanted to buy a human skull. He had Patrick Clayton's skull in his backpack, deputies said.

archive