An Idyl of Exeter Wood

Sometime during the 1930s, the Ladd School conducted a pageant, performed by the residents, titled An Idyl of Exeter Wood. Since discovering one of several surviving handmade playbills for the occasion, it has always seemed to me a darkly ironic title when taking into account the lives claimed by the woods surrounding the institution.

In one case, a nine-year-old boy who disappeared from the institution late one fall; his skull was found hanging from the branch of a tree the following winter, but his body never was found. Then there was the young man who tried to escape the institution one winter; his frozen body was found in the woods a week later. When another young man tried the same thing, his bones were found by the side of the road in the spring.

It is strange to think that, as though part of some cosmic cycle, another body has been found in the Exeter wood - 17 years after the Ladd School closed.

While the identity of the dead, and cause of death, have so far not been reported, some unusual details have surfaced; the remains appear to be that of a 35 to 55 year-old man, with quite a few missing teeth, and wearing a Class of 2009 hoodie.

Based on what information has been released, it's difficult to say how close to the Ladd School the remains were found; but the fact that they were nearby raises some questions. Who is the deceased?

Was he a homeless man, seeking shelter in the abandoned buildings, frozen to death after fleeing from explorers or police?

Was he an escaped patient from the drug rehabilitation facility occupying the old Female Dorm?

Could the early reports be mistaken, and the man was actually much younger - an explorer, perhaps, who met with some unfortunate accident?

According to reports, foul play has been ruled out; but could it have been a suicide?

And is it merely coincidence that so many of his teeth were missing - a typical telltale sign of former Ladd School residents who, it is well known, received poor dental care at the institution.