While researching the death of Joseph Smith Jr., we came across information that he, and his brother Hyrum, were exhumed, examined and photographed in 1928 by the RLDS Church. Out of respect for the Prophet and the Smith Family, we will not publish the actual photographs. However, back in 1993 the authors received permission from the RLDS Church to have copies of these exhumation photographs studied by a team of experts in Forensic Pathology, Anthropology and Facial Trauma. This was first time the RLDS Church allowed the photographs to be taken from their vaults for study. Years prior to this, tracings of these photos were made by Utah artist William Whitaker. These will be used here to illustrate the findings of the experts.

A study of the RLDS photographs shows that Joseph's skull is missing the facial area. (see Fig. 6, below) That his facial bones were missing was made even more puzzling when we found that his brother Hyrum's facial bones (see Fig. 6A, below) were intact, even though he was shot in the face at the time of his death. We therefore considered that when Joseph the Prophet fell from the second story window at Carthage Jail in June of 1844, he suffered facial fractures. Because death occurred only minutes after this event, the bones never healed together, and as decomposition of the soft tissues progressed in the grave, the fragments fell from the face, leaving a void in the skull.

Fig. 6 (Above): The remains of the skull of Joseph Smith traced by William Whitaker from the exhumation photographs taken by the RLDS Church in 1928. Notice that Joseph's skull is missing the facial bones. Previously it had been assumed that this void resulted from decomposition in the grave. Evidence reveals that there is more than just decomposition to the story these bones reveal.

Fig. 6A (Above): The remains of the skull of Hyrum Smith, brother of Joseph, traced by William Whitaker from the exhumation photographs taken by the RLDS Church in 1928. The fact that Hyrum's skull is intact, except for the piece missing where he was shot, proves that decomposition is not the reason for the void in Joseph's skull. Hyrum was buried right next to Joseph.

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