Just in time for the Halloween season, a Midcoast author is embarking on an investigation to discover the whereabouts of a hidden grave containing the remains of a woman who may have been buried alive.

The story began on a cold December night in 1882, when Mary Howe of Damariscotta was sealed in a casket by order of the Lincoln County Sheriff, quietly taken to an unidentified local cemetery, and buried in an unmarked grave.

The reason for the clandestine interment was that many people in town believed Mary wasn’t dead, and that the authorities were burying her alive. The authorities didn’t want these people to find her grave and dig her up in an effort to save her.

To this day her gravesite, and even the cemetery she rests in, remain a mystery. It’s a mystery that author Greg Latimer hopes to solve.

“What we do know about the death of Mary Howe provides clear indications that she may have been in a deep trance, but alive, when she was buried. Unfortunately, that possible tragedy will probably never be resolved,” Latimer said. “However, I believe that this woman and any remaining family members deserve the dignity of knowing her burial location, and that some kind of marker be established there in her memory.”

Latimer has also recently had his first book published: “Haunted Damariscotta: Ghosts of the Twin Villages and Beyond.” The book was published by the History Press and is available at local bookstores including Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta and Sherman’s Books in Boothbay Harbor.

The tale of Mary Howe is the first chapter in the book.

“I was so intrigued with her story; there were witnesses at the time who clearly describe her condition and their descriptions were inconsistent with the effects of death,” said Latimer, a former police evidence photographer in the Los Angeles area. “There was no odor, her limbs were flexible, which tends to rule out initial rigor mortis; and there were no signs of post mortem hypostasis, where blood settles in the lower parts of the body.”

According to Latimer’s research, Mary was a spiritualist who often went into deep trances.

She went in to such a trance in December of 1882. While she was in the trance, she was cared for by her brother Edwin at a house in Damariscotta, who would keep her warm with heated stones. Visitors to the house describe her breathing as shallow or indiscernible, but other than that her skin color looked fine and she seemed healthy.

However, when the county doctor heard of the situation, he paid a visit to the house and quickly declared her dead. He then used his authority to bring the county sheriff in and force her burial.

Anecdotal information from the time period indicates she was buried in the “Glidden Cemetery,” but wasn’t clear if this was the Glidden Street cemetery or the Glidden Cemetery on River Road in Newcastle, or how accurate that information is.

Before the first snow falls, Latimer plans on making site visits to both cemeteries to look for anything that might indicate an unmarked grave.

“Even if such indications are located there is a good probability that a number of grave markers at these sites may have been lost to time and the elements. But one never knows where new information could lead,” Latimer said.

Over the winter months he plans on immersing himself in research, starting with the date Mary Howe was buried.

Some information has already been sought, and led to frustration.

“I have not been able to locate a death record or a probate filing,” Latimer said. “But Mary’s physical description and subsequent interment was mentioned twice in a local newspaper and once in a woman’s diary, so we know she existed and we know the incident occurred.”

Latimer hopes to have developed some strong leads by spring 2015 that will at least reveal what cemetery Mary Howe was laid to rest in.

Anyone with information that may contribute to Latimer’s investigation, or about living relatives of Mary Howe, are encouraged to contact him at 207-380-9912 or greglatimer@yahoo.com.