Scientists reconstruct 19th-century ‘vampire’

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His early 19th-century skeleton had his arms crossed over the chest – a practice then thought to prevent blood-suckers rising from the grave.

The middle-aged remains, found in 1990 in Griswold, Connecticut, have been shown by scientists to be tuberculosis victim John Barber.

Symptoms can include coughing up blood, which may have led scared locals to suspect he was a vampire.

US firm Parabon NanoLabs and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory unveiled him at the International Symposium on Human Identification in Washington, DC.

Parabon NanoLabs said: “Before scientific and clinical knowledge…communities hit with epidemics turned to folklore for explanations.”

DNA analysis and an obituary suggested a name then genome targeting – as used in Parabon’s law enforcement forensics work – plus machine learning predicted him to have had fair skin, brown eyes, brown or black hair and freckles.

Using that data, Parabon forensic artist Thom Shaw built a digital 3D image of his skull and face.

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