"Ape woman" buried after 150 years. The remains of a woman who died in childbirth in the 19th century have finally been laid to rest after more than a century and a half, according to Bloomberg Businessweek on Feb. 12, 2013.
Julia Pastrana earned her unflattering nickname thanks to the excessive hair covering her face and body. The indigenous Mexican lived in Sinaloa before being brought to the United States as a curiosity by Theodore Lent in 1854 when she was 20 years old.
Several years later, Pastrana died during a difficult delivery. Her child, a son, also died. It was her husband who embalmed her body following her death in 1860, but was the "ape woman" buried? No. Instead the body of the young woman with the jutting jaw, excess hair and other abnormalities remained in limbo for more than a century.
Her penultimate resting place was the University of Oslo, Norway, which finally released her remains following multiple government and private requests. The ape woman was buried after 150 years in Sinaloa, a state on the Pacific coast of Mexico. She was interred on Tuesday.
According to the Huffington Post, "After a Roman Catholic Mass in a local church, Pastrana's coffin was carried to the town cemetery and buried as a band played traditional music."
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