The Enigmatic Lady in Red: Unveiling the Mystery of Egypt Plantation

Nov 10, 2025 0

In the heart of Mississippi, a captivating enigma endures, woven into the annals of local lore. It is the story of the "Lady in Red," a woman whose perfectly preserved corpse was unearthed from an unmarked grave on Egypt Plantation decades ago. To this day, many facts about the Lady in Red, including her identity, remain unknown.

Lexington, Mississippi, may appear as any other small town, but it holds a unique distinction: it serves as the final resting place of the Lady in Red. More specifically, the notorious gravesite can be found in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Lexington. Rather small in size and surrounded by towering tombstones, the gravesite could easily be overshadowed, but that’s simply not the case, as its occupant is shrouded in mystery.

The story of the Lady in Red began in the summertime of 1969 when the Thomas family in Cruger, Mississippi, was having their septic tank repaired. Suddenly, the workers unearthed a mystery that has been intriguing people for more than five decades: a woman in red buried in an iron casket on the property.

The coffin that contained the Lady in Red was discovered in 1969 on the Egypt Plantation, which is in the tiny town of Cruger. Newspaper reports state, the coffin was found by a backhoe operator while attempting to install a septic tank. When the backhoe came in contact with a foreign object just four feet below the surface, workers quickly gathered to investigate and were shocked to see a glass-top coffin, which contained the body of a woman in a red velvet dress.

The story of the Lady in Red began when the group of men found her metal casket buried four feet underground. An investigation immediately started, as one of the men in the area was Sheriff Carl Moore. According to the sheriff, they immediately noticed the smell of alcohol and didn't examine the woman’s preserved body further.

Even more intriguing than the discovery of the unmarked gravesite was the condition of the Lady in Red. At the time of her unearthing, the Lady in Red had been dead for an estimated 75 years yet her corpse wasn’t decomposing, and that’s because she was preserved amazingly well in a body-shaped casket that was filled with alcohol, a method of preservation that was common prior to the Civil War.

Word quickly spread about the discovery of the coffin, and local researchers set out to identify the Lady in Red. Unfortunately, her identity was never discovered. Her date of birth and death also remain a mystery. Based on her attire and the method of preservation used, historians estimate that she was born in 1835.

Not long after her discovery, the Lady in Red was moved from Cruger to her final resting place in Lexington. When she was reburied, the story of the Lady in Red may have ended.

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The Discovery and Initial Investigation

In the summer of 1969, farmhands were digging on Egypt Plantation in Cruger, Mississippi when the backhoe operator felt a crunch. Just three feet beneath the topsoil, he had hit a very, very old coffin-made of cast-iron and glass. Workmen accidentally came across the coffin while digging for a septic system.

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According to reports, the casket was a “Fisk Iron Casket,” initially made in 1848. Additional reports showed that this type of casket was popular in the mid-1800s among the rich or the upper class. It's called a Fisk Iron Casket. When people do find these coffins they see the body is preserved perfectly, but once the glass breaks the body deteriorates rapidly.

Inside, a perfectly preserved young woman with long auburn hair and youthful skin, dressed in a red velvet dress with a lace collar and wearing white gloves and silk/leather square-toed boots. She was wearing a red velvet dress, white gloves, and had the face, described as that of a young girl.

When the sheriff opened the iron casket, he described that the body belonged to a woman aged around 27 to 34 years old. She had auburn hair and was wearing a red dress. After further inspection, it was reported that she had a cape and blanket. Aside from that, the inspectors also noticed that she was wearing mid-calf boots with broad heels. Historians believed that the boots were popular from the 1830s to 1840s. For this reason, they concluded that the Lady in Red died before the Civil War. Additionally, they suggested that her dress was made for the upper class, which was solidified by the expensive iron casket.

Experts estimated her birth date. “The unidentified woman was discovered a few days ago in a metal, glass-lined casket in a garden plot on Egypt Plantation and near the home occupied by the J. T. Thomas family.

"The method of preservation used for the Lady In Red was common prior to the Civil War, when custom-made caskets, shaped to the body, were ordered as one would order a dress. The glass that sealed the coffin was placed over the body, and alcohol was poured inside until it was level full, and then sealed with a castiron tip.

Newspaper reports state, the coffin was found by a backhoe operator while attempting to install a septic tank. When the backhoe came in contact with a foreign object just four feet below the surface, workers quickly gathered to investigate and were shocked to see a glass-top coffin, which contained the body of a woman in a red velvet dress.

Once the glass was broken, the young woman’s remains deteriorated rapidly. Her once beautiful red dress was reduced to shreds. A man named Bob Hardeman was working close by the day she was found. “I was in the field. I called the sheriff. I got there within 30 minutes, I’d say. The body had not deteriorated; there was no odor. I ate lunch, rested, the sheriff came. Back out there, the body had deteriorated greatly in the hour and a half. The strange liquid turned out to be alcohol. Alcohol was utilized to preserve decaying corpses in the early 19th century.

The young woman was reburied in the place where she was found. The Lexington Odd Fellows Cemetery is open to the public. The first person to be interred there was a one-year-old boy named Robert. He died on June 8th, 1843.

In 1976, in St. Clair, Pennsylvania, while crews were renovating a former Odd Fellows lodge, they made an unexpected discovery. As they worked, they uncovered a mahogany coffin hidden beneath a false floor in a second-floor closet. Upon opening it, they found something truly bizarre: an articulated human skeleton, with its jaw and fingers wired in such a way that they could move. The coffin was marked with the I.O.O.F. Skeleton Found in St. Clair PA.

In 2001, an electrician named Paul Wallace was working on a former I.O.O.F. lodge in Warrenton, Virginia, when he discovered a tiny door to a dark recess between two walls. Behind the door was a black wooden box. When he pulled the box out to see what was inside it, he was shocked to find a skeleton. He stood and stared at the skeleton for a good 20 minutes before returning it to its hiding place.

Bones, partial and full skeletons, have been found at former Odd Fellows lodges across the country. A group of Missouri cheerleaders found two fake skeletons and one suspiciously realistic one inside three coffins. The cheerleaders had just rented a former Odd Fellows lodge to use for practice. Several moldy bones were found inside a child-sized coffin in Oregon.

The skeletons likely were purchased from scientific or fraternal supply companies.

Advertisement for Fisk Iron Caskets, highlighting their airtight construction and preservation capabilities.

Theories and Speculations

After the Lady in Red was found, people made numerous speculations regarding the woman’s identity. Unfortunately, the truth could never be uncovered, as it was impossible to reach the previous owners of the land.

Though nothing’s been proven, there are several theories regarding the Lady in Red’s identity and how she ended up in an unmarked grave. Some think her coffin fell off a wagon and never reached its final burial site. Without more information, we all will be left in the dark. Did you know about the Lady in Red? Have you ever visited her gravesite? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section.

No one is sure about who the Lady in Red was or why she was buried in a shallow, unmarked grave. Some speculate that the coffin might have fallen off a wagon and never reached its final burial site. Others predict that she was a passenger on a paddleboat who died while traveling the nearby Yazoo River.

One viable explanation is that the mysterious woman died from yellow fever. When they were transporting her body home, something unfortunate occurred, and her body was buried there. Unfortunately, after breaking the seal that was preserving her body, the woman’s body was rapidly deteriorating when they brought it to the funeral parlor. As such, they cannot determine her true identity. Still, her corpse remained in the funeral parlor for months.

Folk or forgotten lore? There are several accounts from individuals claiming to know the back story of The Lady in Red. At the time, it was thought that Egypt Plantation was a stop for riverboats coming up the Yazoo River to Greenwood. Another account from local residents in Tchula speaks of how they were taught that the young girl was hurriedly buried when it was thought she had a fever of some unknown origin, likely, yellow fever. For fear of being contagious, she was buried at the first riverport available for the riverboat.

Lastly, another local account speaks about how there was a flood of high water the year she died around 1900, and no place dry to bury her, so they put her in a boat and went out to find a spot of dry land. The location in Egypt was 7 miles down from where she lived. They would have drifted that way in a boat.

The Fisk Iron Casket

The casket was all steel with a glass window at the top so that the deceased’s face could be seen. It was a ”Fisk Airtight Coffin of Cast” made by the Fisk Company out of Rhode Island. Their caskets resemble the Egyptian sarcophagus because of their sculpted arms. The glass window plate allowed for viewing of the deceased without the risk of exposure to pathogens. The caskets were airtight, which allowed the bodies of deceased persons who died far from home to be shipped back to their families and still be viewed during their funeral.

As for the lady in red, her casket was filled to the top with alcohol after her body was placed inside. The Fisk caskets were pretty expensive for the time period. A pine casket would have cost $2.00, while the steel casket cost $100, which is around $3,500 in 2024 dollars. For context, the average coffin today costs anywhere from $3,000 to $8,000.

The caskets were popular in the mid-1800s and offered several advantages over typical wooden coffins. They allowed the body to be preserved so it could be transported long distances and still be viewed during the funeral. In the event a person died from a highly contagious disease, it allowed viewing of the body without risk it would spread the disease.

Did she die from disease? Was she even from the area? Bonelli said the only thing that might put her on the trail to those answers would be if she could find where the coffin was purchased, and she's not very hopeful it will happen."Who keeps documents that long?" Bonelli asked. "You'd have to be crazy or just really into Fisk coffins."

The Lady in Red's Final Resting Place

The Lady In Red burial ground was moved to the Oddfellows Cemetary in Lexington, MS, and has become a tourist attraction for tourists and locals alike in the Delta.

Eventually, her body was reburied in Odd Fellows Cemetery with a gravestone marker reading, “Lady in Red Found on Egypt Plantation 1835-1969”.

Her grave has become a place where Hammett goes to talk with her, pray and leave flowers."Something has been pulling me to her," Hammett said. "She was someone's child, sister - someone's pain and grief. "She has no one to speak for her. She has no one to pray over her. She has no one to put flowers on her grave. I don't want her to ever be forgotten again."

Persons viewing the woman, who has been described as in her twenties or thirties, dressed in red velvet, with long brown hair, estimate she has been dead at least 75 years."

Like any other state, Mississippi has its fair share of legends, lore, and mystery. One of the state’s most baffling mysteries involves the Lady in Red, whose perfectly preserved corpse was found decades ago on a Mississippi plantation.

The local rumor mill was set ablaze by the discovery.

She was buried along a bank of the Yazoo River near Cruger, preserved by alcohol in a metal and glass coffin. Her red velvet dress, cape and buckled shoes indicated she died in the mid-1800s.

The Yazoo River, only 100 yards from the burial site, was once a major thoroughfare. It connects the Mississippi delta region to the much larger Mississippi River. Wealthy people traveling down the river in the 19th century primarily used steamboats.

One theory was that the lady in red died while on a steamboat voyage and was buried close to the river by her family members. Another theory is that the young woman had already passed away and her casket was being transported on a ship. It was theorized that her body may have fallen off the boat or been found after a steamboat capsized and was buried by locals, in an act of benevolence.

Local historians used the style of the woman’s shoes to trace the approximate time period when she was buried. The shoes were “tiny, low, broad-heeled boots forming a slipper, the fabric of silk going almost to mid-calf.” 38/28/69 greenwood Commonwealth This particular style was popular in the late 1830s and 1840s. It was still popular among aristocratic women in the 1870s-1880s, but by then it had a pointed toe. The lady in red’s shoes were square-toed with buckles. Historians ultimately determined that the lady in red’s death most likely predated the Civil War.

There are those who are skeptical of the lady in red’s existence. For example, why are there no photos of her casket or her body? Polaroid cameras were introduced in the 1940s and were widely available by the late 60s.

In later years, people have flocked to the mysterious lady in red’s grave. Visitors bring flowers and mementos.

Egypt plantation’s mysterious lady in red has never been identified. It is unclear if any DNA testing has been done on her remains. Her real identity will most likely never be known. Even though she may never have her name back, that doesn’t mean she is forgotten.

Chris Hammett, who works for the Lexington Odd Fellows Cemetery, brings flowers and prays over the woman’s grave. Hammett told the Clarion Ledger in 2019, “Something has been pulling me to her. She was someone’s child, sister-someone’s pain and grief. She has no one to speak for her. She has no one to pray over her. She has no one to put flowers on her grave.

The Lady In Red' May Find Final Resting Place In Week JANE BIGGER Staff Writer

The "Lady in Red," who still remains a mystery five months after she was discovered in death, may have a final resting place next week.

A court order has been obtained by the Tol Thomas family, who owns Egypt Plantation to remove the body to a cemetery. The body was discovered on their land in a flower garden, when a new septic tank line was dug last April.

When the all metal casket, the top sealed in glass was hit by a back hoe machine, the remains of the woman were discovered unbelievably preserved in alcohol, her long black hair flowing over her shoulders. She wore a red velvet dress, white gloves, and had the face, described as that of a young girl.