It was very, very odd.

Late last year, contractors working on the Conestoga Greenway Trail were walking through a secluded, wooded area just off South Duke Street, preparing to clear the recently opened path that runs along the Conestoga River.

In a hidden area of the woods, they were surprised to find a chicken crate.

A short distance from the crate, they found something that surprised them even more.

More than a dozen candles had been placed in about a 4-foot circle in a small clearing. The candles had been burned.

"It was a ritual," said one of the contractors, who asked not to be identified. "Somebody had a ritual."

Eight months later, just a quarter-mile away, somebody dug up the grave of 9-year-old Paula Ream in the Babyland section of Riverview Cemetery sometime between last Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon. The robbers stole the skeleton of the child, who died from cerebral palsy in 1962.

Paula's grave is just a short walk away, across Duke Street, from the site where the candles and chicken crate were found, the contractor said. He and his co-workers also found a second chicken crate that day, about a mile from the first one.

Could the people who burned the candles be connected to the ones who dug up Paula's grave?

Or could the grave digger be a disturbed prankster who wanted to pull off a stunt on Friday the 13th, the date Paula's grave likely was robbed?

No one knows.

But police investigating robberies of children's graves across the nation believe they have encountered similar situations in two other cases.

Connecticut police believe the robbery of a child's grave in Stamford, discovered last year, was linked to spiritual, ritualistic practices, due to the discovery of chicken heads and other objects found near the child's recovered body and in her grave.

In a very different case, the robbery of a child's grave in Wisconsin is believed to be linked to Halloween troublemakers.

City police are keeping an open mind as they investigate the unusual robbery here. Investigators don't like to embrace a particular theory early, because they could be wrong and overlook evidence leading them in a different direction.

"There's no telling what could turn up in a case like this," said Lancaster Police Chief Keith Sadler. "There's a lot of sick people who seem to get enjoyment out of this, whether it's a religious practice or somebody who's really sick and demented and thinks it will be funny."

Indeed, police have very different ideas about three robberies of children's graves in recent years in Connecticut, Wisconsin and Florida.

The Connecticut grave robbery is one of the most unusual cases.

In July 2009, two fishermen discovered the remains of a toddler in a plastic bag in the Passaic River in Clifton, N.J.

The child turned out to be Imani Joyner, 2, who had died in 2007 and was buried in Stamford, Conn. After they identified the child, the police went to her grave site and, much to their astonishment, it looked pristine, said Capt. Richie Conklin of the Stamford police force.

Police believe that grave robbers took the toddler's body from her grave shortly after she was buried, but restored the grave site to look normal, Conklin said.

They think the robbers targeted the child because she had been tagged a "miracle baby" by local media, due to the fact that she was born with a rare neurological condition but survived much longer than doctors had expected.

Police think the robbers who took Imani may have practiced spiritual rituals associated with a belief system called Palo Mayombe, which developed in Cuba among African slaves and survives to this day, Conklin said.

"People who practice these type of rituals, we believe, thought there was some mystical power to this baby, who was not supposed to live even days after her birth," Conklin said. "Our theory is that this baby was particularly sought after because of those qualities. The rituals hoped to transfer some of those powers."

Investigators found chicken heads and other evidence of sacrificial rituals near where the child's body was found in New Jersey, Conklin said. They also found similar evidence in her grave when they exhumed it, though Conklin declined to say what it was. No arrests have been made in the case.

In comparing different grave robberies, Conklin said, "The problem is that this is kind of an underground, cult-type religion, sect thing. It's not like there are written rules. Certain people practice it, then there are offshoots."

Tony Kail is a Tennessee author and educator who has studied what he calls "magico religious activity." He spoke to Stamford police about their case and is consulted by other departments about similar cases.

Kail cautioned against jumping to any conclusions about a grave robbery.

"A disturbed grave alone," he said, "is not an indication of a magico religious activity," he said. "Historically, many of the incidents involving grave thefts are done by those who aren't involved in actual magico religious cultures. Individuals who 'roll their own' take elements from established religions and create their own subcultures."

Bones used in African-based religious traditions are used to represent ancestors, he said.

But most bones used in Palo Mayombe are obtained through legal means, said Kail, who wrote "A Cop's Guide to Occult Investigations" and "Magico Religious Groups and Ritualistic Activities: A Guide for First Responders."

Though disturbing, not every grave robbery is linked to rituals or the occult.

Police in Wisconsin don't believe there was any ritualistic connection to the robbery of a baby's grave there two years ago near Rice Lake, in northwest Wisconsin.

In that case, robbers dug 4 feet through sandy soil at the grave of "Baby Locke," who died shortly after birth in 1925.

That robbery happened shortly before Halloween, and police think it was done by pranksters. They have made no arrests.

The baby was buried with his father, John Locke, the name of a character on the TV series "Lost," which was popular at the time, said Dave Kuffel, a detective with the Barron County Sheriff's Office.

Also, the two are interred in a cemetery that has a reputation of being haunted, he added.

"In the evenings around Halloween, it attracts onlookers, people who want to get scared," he said. "My belief, and this is just personal, is that this was associated with Halloween, people possibly looking for a skeleton, probably looking for a grave."

Whoever dug the hole didn't come away with much, Kuffel believes. Forensic pathologists don't believe much of the baby's skeleton would have survived in the acidic soil. Police found only a small fragment of bone, along with a single marble, in the grave.

In the Florida case, police don't know who pushed a 600-pound marble lid off a crypt in 2006 and stole the remains of 6-year-old Stevie Dale, who died in 1972 in a traffic accident.

"Right now for us, the case remains cold," said Andrea Davis, Tampa Police Department spokesman.

Police do not have a theory about the case, she said.

However, a police report from the case did note that the superintendent of the cemetery where Stevie was buried frequently found remains of what could be ritualistic practices.

The superintendent found several decapitated chickens every month, he told police. He also told police he found a pig's head and a cow's tongue.

"Who really knows why someone commits a crime like this?" Davis said. "But for them to do something like this is pretty disgusting."

Sadler agreed.

Truthfully, he doesn't much care why someone dug up Paula Ream's grave.

"I'm not concerned about that," he said. "What I am concerned about is that they dug up somebody's family member, and disturbed somebody's resting place. It's extremely disrespectful to the family and the deceased.

"They need to be prosecuted for that."

Lancaster City-County Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the those responsible for the grave robbery.

City police ask anyone with information to call 735-3300, Detective Sgt. Gary Mackley at 735-3347 or Lancaster City-County Crime Stoppers at (800) 322-1913. Callers do not have to give their names.

cstauffer@lnpnews.com