In the 1800s, the infamous girl, whose body was found under a house in San Francisco, her body entombed in a small lead and bronze coffin and her well-preserved hands clutching a single rose, has been identified.

Gardner of Innocence’s nonprofit project says the childâwho not only astonished the work Crew, who stumbled over the casket but also city officials who thought the bodies in the 19th century Richmond District cemetery had all been movedâwas Edith Howard Cook.
Edith was a month and a half short of her third birthday when she died Oct. 13, 1876, according to researchers working with the Southern California’s Garden of Innocence.

The cause of her death? Probably septic shock caused by an infection, the researchers said.
The team had been working to identify the little girl since her body was discovered during a home remodel project near Lone Mountain.
âIt was a light at the end of the tunnel shining out where she is,â said Erica Hernández, a project spokesperson.
The researchers, who included staff at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Davis, located records from the old cemetery that was run by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows until about 1902, when the graves were relocated to Colma.
Although the paperwork was âunorganized,â Hernández said, the team was able to cross-reference cemetery plot records with old newspapers obituaries and get an idea of who the young child might be.
Once it concluded that Edith was probably the girl, the team tracked down living relatives for a DNA sample to verify their findings. That confirmation came when a sample from Edith’s hair matched that of Peter Cook, a descendant of her brother, who lives in Marin County.

Edith Howard Cook was the second child and first daughter of Horatio Nelson and Edith Scooffy Cook. Peter Cook is descended from her older brother, Milton H. Cook.
Edithâs family was believed to be of decent means, having buried the child in a relatively opulent metal casket 37 inches in length, with two viewing windows on the lid. Her skin and hair, as well as her burial flowers, were well-preserved. She was one of about 30,000 people with graves at the old Odd Fellows Cemetery.

While her remains werenât transported to Colma around 1920, when the city wanted room for the living, her remains were mostly preserved.