Scientists uncover why at least 100 dead bodies have naturally mummified in Colombian town since 1960s

A resident of a Colombian town was baffled to find her mother's body had naturally mummified after she died 30 years ago.

The occurrence was discovered in more than 100 other bodies that were exhumed from the San Bernardo municipal cemetery since the 1960s.

In many cases, the bodies still had their hair and nails intact and in some cases still had their skin tissue and eyeballs which are typically one of the first to decompose after burial.

Locals have long believed the bodies were mummified because of their active, farming lifestyle, or because they were too good during their lives and were either being rewarded or punished. 

But a new investigation may have found a scientific explanation to why the remains have persisted -  it could be a combination of the humidity and the steep mountainside the cemetery sits upon.

People whose bodies were naturally preserved and mummified after burial (pictured) were discovered at the San Bernardo municipal cemetery

People were found with their skin tissue and nails intact, making researchers question if the steep mountain slope the cemetery sits on and the humid air contributed to preserving their bodies (pictured)

Researchers are unable to identify what caused the mummification process, saying that the bodies were found in different areas of the cemetery and were among different age groups and genders

The bodies were first discovered when they were exhumed from the San Bernardo municipal cemetery in 1963, and in the late 1980s, about 50 mummies were found each year.

Similar natural mummification has been seen in Guanajuato in Mexico, where underground gas and chemical composition of the soil is responsible for the dead not rotting.

However, the dead at Guanajuato date back to the first half of the 19th century, while the mummies at San Bernardo are comparatively young.

Mummification involves a process of preserving the body after death by deliberately drying or embalming the flesh – but the bodies at San Bernardo were essentially mummified by accident.

After a body is buried, it only takes about three to five days for its teeth and nails to fall out but can take a decade to decompose, leaving behind a skeleton and traces of hair, skin tissue and clothing fibers.

But when Clovisnerys Bejarano unearthed her mother in 2001, who had been buried three decades earlier, she found her preserved and still wearing her burial clothes, saying she could have simply been asleep.

Clovisnerys Bejarano's mother's body (pictured) was exhumed in 2001, three decades after she was buried

Bejarano's mother (pictured) still had her skin tissue, hair and nails when she was exhumed, and researchers have tried to uncover why and how these bodies were mummified

Nails is one of the first things to fall off the body within three to five days after the deceased was buried

The occurrence was discovered in more than 100 other bodies that were exhumed from the San Bernardo municipal cemetery since the 1960s

'She still has her little brown face, round, her braids, her hair,' Bejarano, told AFP, adding: 'If God wanted to preserve her… it must be for a reason.' 

Bejarano's mother is displayed at the museum of mummies at the Jose Arquimedes Castro mausoleum alongside 13 other bodies that were exhumed from the San Bernardo cemetery.

The cemetery removes bodies from its mausoleum every year to make room for the newly deceased.

But living decedents must provide permission for loved ones to be displayed inside glass cases - many have chosen to have the mummified bodies cremated. 

Researchers investigating the mummification have not found a pattern for how or why the bodies were mummified - a process that entails embalming or drying out the body of a deceased person.

The San Bernardo municipal cemetery first unearthed a mummified body in 1963 and in the late 1980s found 50 preserved bodies each year

The bodies were fully preserved, leading many to question if it was the resident's diet and active farming lifestyle that contributed to the slowed decay

A mummy at the San Bernardo mausoleum has remained preserved without needing any chemical treatment that would be conducted during the mummification process

They reported that the bodies all came from different areas of the cemetery and were among different age groups and genders.

'When all this began, people were a little incredulous about what was happening; they thought these were going to be isolated events,' museum guide Rocio Vergara told AFP.

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'As time went on, it became more and more frequent to find bodies in this condition,' she said.

At first, scientists thought the mummification could be due to the people's healthy diet and their active, farming culture, but one person who was brought back to the area from Bogota - a city about 40 miles from San Bernardo - contradicted this possibility.

Now researchers are turning to one of the only possibilities left to them: the heat from the burial vaults combined with the elevated cemetery could mimic an oven. 

However, anthropologist Daniela Betancourt of the National University of Colombia said it could be due to the mountain's steep slope.

'The wind is constantly blowing as it is hot. 

'It is possible to assume that the vaults work like an oven… they dehydrate you,' anthropologist Daniela Betancourt of the National University of Colombia told AFP.

'There has been a lack (of) studies about what is happening and what specific conditions are the ones that cause people to mummify,' she said, adding that the theory will still need to be tested.

Regardless of the reason, some residents are glad that their loved ones' bodies were preserved.

'Most people who lose their parents put them in the ground or cremate them and can never see them again,' resident Pabon told the New York Post in 2022, saying he visited his father's remains every two weeks in 2015 after his body was found.

'But if I miss him, I can see him any time, and he's exactly how he was in life,' he added.