© Google MapsThe uncorrupted body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, founder of the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles.
Leaders in the Catholic Church contacted Rome and commissioned an investigation into the situation after the remains of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster were exhumed last week.
Lancaster's corpse appears to show little sign of degradation or rotting despite having been buried in 2019 — a phenomenon considered a possible sign of sainthood in Catholicism.
Her body was not embalmed before her burial and her casket was made of simple wood without an exterior layer.
David Hess associate professor in the Salt Lake Community College mortuary science department told Catholic News Agency that the deceased nun's pristine condition is hard to explain.
"If the body was not embalmed, and it was still intact after four years, that one kind of throws me," he told CNA. "I would have expected the body to be decomposed, maybe not all the way down to bone, but at least severely decomposed."
Comment: USA Today adds some background on Sister Wilhelmina and the crowds that have come to view her body: For more on the rare phenomenon of incorrupt bodies of Catholic and Orthodox saints, see here.