The Chilling Discovery Made In An Abandoned UC Berkeley Building
On January 13, 2023, KTVU reported that human remains had been found in an abandoned building on a satellite part of the campus of the University of California-Berkeley. The evidence would seem to indicate that the remains had been there for some time; specifically, they had been "skeletonized," as school officials reported. According to USA Today, a police official suggested that the remains have been there for years, saying, "It is not clear how many years they have been there." Further still, since the building in which the remains were found has been abandoned, it's not clear if the victim's murder predates the closing of the building or if perhaps their murderer had abandoned the corpse there after it was abandoned.
The shocking discovery brought an immense police presence to the forgotten-about corner of the campus, searching the derelict structure, and the surrounding area, for any evidence that might help identify the individual. There are no active missing-person cases known on campus, and as of the date of this writing, officials aren't even sure if the victim is male or female.
A Remote Corner of Campus
The University of California, Berkeley can be thought of as having more than one campus. There's the main campus, and then about a mile away is the Clark-Kerr Campus. As the university describes it on its website, this part of campus is a "mini-neighborhood with Spanish mission-style architecture, tree-lined courtyards, and access to nature and hiking trails."
In stark contrast to the residential campus' quiet, natural beauty, however, sits an unidentified building that has sat abandoned for an untold number of years. Photos of the structure in the New York Post show the building covered in graffiti, its windows boarded up, and its courtyards in disrepair. An article about ghostly goings-on around this part of campus, posted in The Daily Californian in 2018, mentions an abandoned building in that part of town, although it doesn't identify it by name, and it's unclear if there is more than one such building on the Clark-Kerr Campus.
'A Lot Of Police Activity'
An unidentified worker who was working at or near the abandoned building where the remains were discovered told KTVU that they had been working when all of a sudden everything came to a stop." We saw a lot of police activity. There was a construction site. They were like demo-ing everything out of this building and all of a sudden just stopped. The next day we saw the coroner come. A lot of police activity," said the worker. They added that the building was popular with the unhoused, so they (the worker) suspected at first that the activity had something to do with an unhoused person or persons.
Meanwhile, police are stymied, considering the fact that there are no missing-persons cases on campus, and considering the advanced decay of the remains. Meanwhile, according to The Daily Californian, the Alameda County Coroner's Office has opened an investigation. However, in an email to students, University of California Police Department spokesperson Sergeant Jacob Westlie promised that the investigation would cause minimal disruption to those who live or visit this section of campus.