Sara and Kito Tidwell’s remains

Sara and Kito Tidwell’s remains are the hidden physical record of the murders that helped shape the haunting of Dark Score Lake. Wrapped in canvas and buried for nearly a century, the bones become the focus of Mike Noonan’s desperate attempt to end Sara’s influence: when he pours lye over them, Sara’s presence gives way to a sound of grief and surrender, and the supernatural force attacking Jo disappears.

Discovery at Dark Score Lake

Mike finds the remains while digging in wet ground, following the stench to an ancient canvas roll. Stencilled letters identify it as coming from J. M. McCurdie’s sawmill, which had burned in the fires of 1933. The roll is tied at both ends, but splits as Mike hauls it from the earth; its rotten, mold-crusted material releases a fresh wave of foul odor.

Inside are two yellowed skulls, positioned forehead to forehead, a faded red leather belt, decayed clothing, and two sets of bones. The larger ribcage and longer legs belong to Sara; the smaller remains are those of her son, Kito. Their proximity makes the bundle more than a concealed grave: it is the material evidence of a mother and child murdered and hidden together, left beneath the lakeside ground for almost a hundred years.

The Burials and Their Return

The remains had not been buried in their eventual resting place immediately after the murders. Mike reasons that the perpetrators first dragged the bodies deeper into the woods and covered them with brush, then returned after dark to conceal them in the canvas roll. He guesses the original burial site was Bowie Ridge, an isolated place where the men had spent much of the summer cutting timber.

Years later, the men who had taken part in the crime remained troubled by what they had done. According to Jo Noonan’s notes, they came to believe that digging up the bodies and reburying them where the murders occurred would restore normality. They acted without Jared Devore’s help, placing the bundle where Mike eventually finds it in late fall or early winter of 1902. In Mike’s account, Sara wanted to be back where she could work on the men—and on the township—making the reburial part of the history that binds the remains to the continuing haunting.

Destruction and Release

The discovery alone does not end the haunting. As the remains stir and the supernatural force continues to threaten Jo, Mike uses a bottle of lye bought at Helen Auster’s shop. The message had been encoded in the refrigerator letters as Lye stille, a wordplay that told him what to do while concealing the instruction from Sara. Jo’s long association with Mike has given them a means of communicating beneath the hostile presence’s notice, and Sara has underestimated both Jo and that bond.

Mike pours the lye over the bones. It dissolves the red belt buckle and reduces the softened bones to crumbling white fragments; the skull’s jaw and teeth also break down. Sara’s presence answers with a sound of grief, longing, and surrender rather than hatred. As that voice fades, the plaintive cry of a bird replaces it, and Mike comes fully out of the zone. He can see through Jo again, while the Outsider that had been attacking her is gone. The destruction of the remains therefore closes the immediate supernatural confrontation, not simply by removing a hidden object but by ending Sara’s hold on the scene.

Historical Significance and Narrative Function

The remains connect a concealed act of violence to the generations of disturbance that followed. Mike’s reconstruction distinguishes the first concealment from the later reburial: after Sara and Kito were killed, their bodies were initially dragged farther into the woods and hidden under brush. The perpetrators returned that night, when leaving the bodies exposed would have attracted animals, and concealed them in the canvas roll. Mike guesses that the first hiding place was Bowie Ridge, where the men had spent much of the summer logging, but presents this location as an inference rather than a confirmed fact.

The canvas bundle subsequently became the object of a second burial. Jo’s notes indicate that, in late fall or early winter of 1902, the men who had participated in the crime dug up the remains and buried them where Mike eventually found them, without Jared Devore’s assistance. They hoped that returning the bodies to the place of the murders would make things normal again. Instead, that act prolonged the remains’ connection to the site and to Sara’s continuing reach over the people and township. The bundle thus carries two layers of concealment: the original effort to hide the victims and the later attempt to manage the guilt and haunting through another burial.

As an object in the present-day confrontation, the remains turn that buried history into something Mike can act upon. Their decayed material form—the canvas, belt, clothing, skulls, and softened bones—makes the old crime physically undeniable, while their supernatural stirring shows that discovery alone has not ended its effects. Destroying the bones with lye finally breaks the immediate hold associated with Sara: her presence departs in grief and surrender, and the force attacking Jo disappears. The remains are therefore both evidence of past violence and the material focus through which the narrative resolves the haunting’s present threat.

Historical Significance and Narrative Function

The remains connect a concealed act of violence to generations of disturbance. Mike reconstructs two stages of burial: after Sara and Kito were killed, their bodies were dragged farther into the woods and covered with brush; the perpetrators returned that night, when leaving them exposed might have attracted animals, and hid them in the canvas roll. Mike guesses that the first hiding place was Bowie Ridge, where the men had spent much of the summer logging, but treats that location as an inference rather than a confirmed fact.

The canvas bundle later became the object of a second burial. Jo’s notes indicate that, in late fall or early winter of 1902, the men who had participated in the crime dug up the remains and buried them where Mike eventually finds them, without Jared Devore’s help. They hoped that returning the bodies to the place of the murders would make things normal again. Instead, the act joined the remains to the site and to Sara’s continuing reach over the people and township. The bundle carries two layers of concealment: the initial effort to hide the victims, and the later attempt to quiet guilt and haunting through another burial.

In the present-day confrontation, the remains turn buried history into something Mike can act upon. Their decayed material form—the canvas, belt, clothing, skulls, and softened bones—makes the old crime physically undeniable, while their supernatural stirring shows that discovery alone has not ended its effects. Destroying the bones with lye finally breaks Sara’s immediate hold: her presence departs in grief and surrender, and the force attacking Jo disappears. The remains are both evidence of past violence and the material focus through which the narrative resolves the haunting’s present threat.