Killing vampires

The cause of death of a teenage girl whose remains were dug up in 2022 from a 400-year-old unmarked Polish graveyard for people suspected to be vampires was mysterious.

Researchers who studied the bones and teeth of Zosia said there were no signs the girl died from violence or disease, the New York Post (NYP) reports.

Zosia’s remains were found in a padlocked, booby-trapped grave, with a sickle placed across her neck that experts believe was intended to behead her if she revived and tried to emerge from the grave, according to NYP, citing the findings published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Meanwhile, millennial teens’ interest in vampire legends continues, since the movie “Twilight,” starring Robert Pattinson, was a hit 18 years ago.

The interest is being sustained by the third season of the TV series “Interview With a Vampire” starring Sam Reid who plays rock star Lestat de Lioncourt in the show. Reinforcing the trend was a recent auction of antiques by Live Auctioneers.

In the online bidding, artifacts that dated back to the mid-1800s that were discovered by Zev Antiques in Hallandale Beach, Florida were bought by an anonymous bidder for $3,000.

The antiques, contained in a customized violin case, consisted of two wooden stakes, a giant crucifix, a Latin prayer book, a glass-blown bottle marked for holy water, a wooden mallet branded with a burned cross, two ornate metal canisters, a solid brass jar labeled “SEL” or salt, a Belgian pistol, and a large dagger with a carved zombie priest for its handle, NYP reports.

All the items were vintage vampire hunting tools.

Antiques artillery expert Vlad Krechmar told NYP the pistol could hold lead bullets “coated with various potions” to kill vampires.

The mallet was for pounding the stakes that held the vampire’s body on the ground, while the salt was used to draw an “impenetrable circle” around Dracula and his friends, he said.