The World: The Body Snatchers

Shortly after 8 a.m. last Monday, Gravedigger Jean Taraud inspected a whitewashed concrete tomb in the graveyard on He d'Yeu, a small, windswept island eleven miles off the west coast of France. "I noticed that the sand around it had been neatly swept—too neatly, considering how many visitors there always are on Sunday," said Taraud. "Then I noticed chisel marks on the tombstone. I said to my colleague: The tombstone has been lifted.' "

Indeed it had been. A group of grave robbers—who apparently crossed the Bay of Biscay to the He d'Yeu by...

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