For four days, police were on the trail of a mystery -- to learn what happened to Mary Fowler’s 1792 headstone. The slab, which refers to Mary as “Molly,” had become famous for the rather macabre epitaph:
"Molly tho pleasant in her day
Was sudd'nly siezed and sent away
How soon shes ripe how soon shes rottin
Sent to her grave & soon for gottin," according to Findagrave.com.
On Saturday, Milford’s historian, Richard Platt, noticed that someone swiped the 217-year-old marker from Milford Cemetery, he told the Connecticut Post. It could have been a prankster, but it could also be a collector. Nevertheless, it was gone, until Wednesday.
Someone found the tombstone in a wooded area about 100-feet from the plot from which it is taken, Milford police said Wednesday.
Ray Scholl, of the Milford Cemetery, said the tombstone was not damaged and it will be put back to its original position.
Police think vandals swiped the stone and they are investigating.
It’s the best-known epitaph in Milford, probably in the whole state, according to the book, “Stones and Bones of New England.”
While people know about this stone, little is known about Mary herself, except that she was 24, unmarried and died on Feb. 1, 1792.
The stone is 15-inches across and stands 2-feet high, according to the New England Anomaly Newsblog.
