A woman’s head was discovered in a drainage ditch off Cane Bottom Road in Pinebox by several boys who were playing in the area.
Pinebox Police Detective David West stated that the head belonged to “Francis Bucknell, who has been missing since last Saturday, and whose body was discovered last week near the railroad line in southern Golan County.”
It is unknown how or why the head was discovered over two miles from where the body was found. The Sheriff’s Department is working with the Pinebox Police Department in this investigation. Detective West is treating this as a murder case, though there is still a chance it was some sort of wild animal attack.
Francis Bucknell was a sophomore student at East Texas University and was a Forestry major. She often hiked in the Thicket and left the dorms last Saturday Morning and did not return.
Her roommate, Jenny Knowls, reported that Francis was fascinated by the legend of the Piney Devil and various Bigfoot sightings, and spent many weekends hiking and camping in the Thicket hoping to spot one, or to find evidence of one.
Her body was discovered near the railroad tracks in southern Golan County on Sunday, but remained unidentified until her head was discovered on Tuesday.
The Pinebox Police Department and the Golan County Sheriff’s Department is asking for anyone with information about this case to contact them immediately at 1-800-555-HELP (4357).
This article is inspired by a story from our upcoming anthology, Buried Tales of Pinebox. The story, by David Wellington, brings unique twists that follow a local Sheriff’s deputy as he struggles with a horrific murder and a fateful decision that will change his life forever. Look for it this summer.
David Wellington is the author of seven novels. His zombie novels “Monster Island”, “Monster Nation” and “Monster Planet”(Thunder’s Mouth Press) form a complete trilogy. He has also written a series of vampire novels including (so far) “Thirteen Bullets”, “Ninety-Nine Coffins”, “Vampire Zero” and “Twenty-Three Hours” (Three Rivers Press). As an undergraduate he attended Syracuse University; in 1996 he received an MFA in Creative Writing from Penn State; and in 2006 he received an MLS from the Pratt Institute. Mr. Wellington currently resides in New York City with his wife Elisabeth and their dog Mary. Mr. Wellington got his start in publishing in an interesting way. In 2004 he began serializing his horror fiction online, posting short chapters of a novel three times a week on a friend’s blog. The book was written in “real-time”; that is, each chapter was conceived, outlined, researched, composed and edited within twenty-four hours of its initial posting. By word of mouth readers learned of the project and returned to watch the story evolve. Response to the project was so great that in 2004 Thunder’s Mouth Press approached Mr. Wellington about publishing “Monster Island” as a print book. The novel has been featured in Rue Morgue, Fangoria, and the New York Times. For more information please visit www.davidwellington.net.
