TV Talk: Netflix’s ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ explores Beaver County severed head case

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

Terry Dunn Meurer, who co-created and has executive produced “Unsolved Mysteries” since its first iteration on NBC in 1987, said a Beaver County-­set episode that premieres this week is one of her “all-time favorite” unsolved mysteries.

In the latest batch of episodes that debut Wednesday on Netflix, Episode 3, “The Severed Head,” explores the case of an embalmed head of a woman that was found in Economy in December 2014.

“This is probably one of the most bizarre ‘Unsolved Mystery’ cases, and we’ve done (more than) 1,300 at this point,” Dunn Meurer said. “I’d just never heard of anything like an embalmed head that’s been professionally severed and no body is found. We don’t know the cause of death, the manner of death. It just took us down this road into the world of body parts trade.”

Dunn Meurer praised Beaver County chief Detective Andy Gall and Economy police Chief Mike O’Brien, saying they “turned over every stone” in their efforts to identify the woman, even seeking out satellite images from NASA that could have offered clues as to who disposed of the head on the side of a road.

“It breaks my heart that somebody out there doesn’t know that their loved one is not where they think they are,” she said. “Mike and Andy are just amazing, so passionate about this case.”

Dunn Meurer said she pitched the case to Netflix for the second season of “Unsolved Mysteries” but the platform said no.

“Then I put together a sizzle (reel) and I pitched it again for Season 3, and now they have actually admitted they really do like the case,” she said.

Dunn Meurer said the show filmed in Beaver County and included licensed footage from Reuters that was shot by reporter Blake Morrison, who interviewed a man who lived across the street from where the head was found.

Dunn Meurer theorizes either the body was stolen or sold for research purposes and then somehow wound up in the body parts trade.

“I don’t believe she was murdered,” she said. “I just think something happened after the casket was closed.”

When “Unsolved Mysteries” streams “The Severed Head,” Dunn Meurer hopes someone will call the show and help solve this mystery.

“I’m just hoping somebody recognizes this woman and we can reunite her head with her body, wherever that is,” she said. “That’s why I’m really passionate about this one and why it’s had my heart for years now.”