GRISWOLD, CT – For nearly three decades, researchers including archaeologists, historians and DNA experts have been investigating the identity of a Connecticut vampire, USA Today recently reported.

They even have a name: John Barber. 

Barber’s identity helps answer mysteries surrounding the death of a man who died of tuberculosis in the early 1800s.

More than a century-and-a-half later his mutilated corpse was uncovered.

History points to suspicion of Barber’s vampirism as the reason for his dismemberment.

Nick Bellantoni, emeritus Connecticut state archaeologist and anthropology professor at the University of Connecticut, told USA TODAY that he has been on this case since the “vampire” was found in 1990.

“Some kids were playing at a gravel bank in Griswold, Connecticut,” said Bellantoni. “During one of their slides down, two skulls dislodged and rolled down the hill with the boys.”

One of the boys brought a skull to his mother and she called the police, which ignited an investigation into a colonial-era cemetery that seemed to be the final resting place for generations of two families over the years, according to Bellantoni.

But there was something different in one of the coffins – a decapitated skeleton with bones arranged into a skull and crossbones.

The mutilation likely happened four or five years after the man — known as JB55 for the initials and age found on his coffin — had died, Bellantoni said, USA Today reported.

At the time of Barber’s death in the early 1800s, people believed that the dead would rise up and infect family members. He died from tuberculosis, or consumption, according to the lesions on his ribs, Bellantoni said.

“Vampirism was a way to explain the unexplainable in an age before modern medicine existed,” Charla Marshall, lead scientist on the DNA exploration, told USA TODAY in an email. “The vampire scare was real in New England in the 1800s.”

In a moment of fear during the “Great New England Vampire Panic,” families were digging up their deceased relatives to ensure they couldn’t spread diseases, according to the Smithsonian.

Tuberculosis was one of those illnesses.

Tuberculosis victims could remain asymptomatic for years and fall ill much later, strengthening the theory that a dead relative could have come back to infect others posthumously. 

Vampires were thought to have a pale complexion and protruding teeth, according to folklore.

Akin to that imagery, the sickness gave its victims a very haggard look. With bulging eyes and sunken cheeks, victims became very pale and coughed up blood. Their gum lines would recede, too.

The practice of digging up bodies wasn’t uncommon across New England, and in other regions such as Europe throughout the world.

Sometimes, it was a family-only event, voted on by town leaders or it was a public affair. In places such as Vermont, it could even be festive, according to Smithsonian.

When JB55 was discovered, information about the corpse was scarce.

Bellantoni said they looked at historical records to learn more. His research team was able to find out a bit about the Waltons, the family that lived in that area before JB55 and his relatives. But information about the B family themselves was lacking.

Decades after he was discovered, scientists at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Delaware were able to use JB55’s DNA to find a name.