Human skeleton found on Berkeley campus
Renca Dunn, Daily Moth Reporter: A few weeks ago, a human skeleton was found inside an abandoned building at the University of California, Berkeley. This specific abandoned building, named Building 21, is on the Clark Kerr campus which is about a mile south of the university’s main campus. That campus once belonged to California School for the Deaf and Blind (CSDB) which is better known as “Berkeley school” before it moved to Fremont in 1980. The school became the California School for the Deaf Fremont.
When we saw that news about the skeleton being discovered on a campus that used to belong to the deaf school, we were curious if people who went to CSD during the time it was in Berkeley had some thoughts on this.
We reached out to a person named Steve McCullough who was one of the former students at Berkeley. He entered CSD in Berkeley in 1957 when he was 10 years old. This is what he shared.
Steve McCullough: The building was not there during my time. There was nothing. During my time we had dorm building 17. I used to live there. Dorm 17 was near the track & field and the football field. So, when I was looking at the campus map, I did not recognize building 21. Obviously, they built it later. It seems that building 21 is useless and abandoned. I had never seen it before. So, in 1980, the deaf school moved to Fremont. I do not know what happened to that campus after we moved.
Renca: We reached out to a few more Berkeley school alumnas and a few community members of CSDF, and they recommended us to connect with a person named Kenneth Norton, who knows a lot about the history of CSD in Berkeley. He is an alumna of that school. He enrolled in 1931 and graduated in 1945. He was the first Deaf person to become the Dean of Students at CSD Berkeley during that time. We contacted him to have him share his thoughts.
Renca: I’m sure you saw the news talking about a human skeleton being found in Building 21, I believe it’s called?
Kenneth Norton: Oh yes, I saw the news.
Renca: Did you have any knowledge of that building during your days on campus there?
Kenneth: I’m not familiar with the building number. I believe UC Berkeley set up the numbers for the buildings. During my time, we did not do numbers for buildings. We had names for each building. So that Building 21 is not familiar to me. However, I looked at the campus map and it seems that the building is closer to the Blind school area. It’s interesting and I did not look deep into it. I believe after the school moved in 1980, something must have happened afterward, not before. I doubt it. I did see the news and the skeleton could really be a few years old. You know our bodies decompose fast. So with that being said, l do not think the skeleton belongs to a deaf person!
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Renca: Thank you Steve and Kenneth for your time. It seems to us that Building 21 (where the human skeleton was found) was not there during the time that CSD was in Berkeley but was possibly built after the school moved to Fremont.
In the several articles we read, they mentioned that no missing persons have been reported missing from UC Berkeley and they said that it is unclear how many years the skeleton was there in the abandoned building. The Alameda County Coroner’s Office is now investigating the skeleton and trying to find the cause of death. We reached out to the coroner’s office if they had any updates. They told us that they were not able to give us a response as this case is still under investigation.
That is what we know for now.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/human-skeleton-found-uc-berkeley-campus-96430118
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/human-skeleton-found-building-uc-berkeley-campus-rcna65829