The Chase Vault Coffins — Barbados Tomb Found With Coffins Moved After Each Sealing

Between 1812 and 1820, the Chase family vault in Christ Church Parish, Barbados was sealed and reopened four times. On each reopening, workers and witnesses including the Governor of Barbados found that the heavy lead coffins inside had been moved and thrown about violently, though the vault was undisturbed, sealed with mortar, and showed no evidence of flooding or human entry. The vault was first sealed in 1808 with the coffin of Mrs. Thomasina Goddard. When the Chase family opened it to add the coffin of an infant in 1812, they found nothing amiss. When they added another coffin in 1812, one coffin had been moved. By 1816 and 1819, subsequent openings found the coffins in complete disarray — thrown against walls and upended — despite careful resealing. Governor Lord Combermere personally supervised the vault's resealing in 1819, placing sand on the floor to detect footprints, checking the walls for secret entrances, and affixing his personal seal to the cement. When the vault was opened in 1820, the sand showed no footprints, the seals were intact — but the coffins were again scattered violently about. After the 1820 incident, the Chase family removed all coffins from the vault and buried them elsewhere. The vault has been empty ever since. The case was documented by multiple reliable witnesses of high social standing. Proposed explanations include flooding, earthquake activity, and hoax, but none convincingly accounts for the undisturbed sealed chamber and moved coffins.