On December 1, 1978, a 53-year-old patient of the Athens Mental Health and Retardation Center in Athens, OH, was reported missing by the staff, and initial searches were unsuccessful. On January 11, 1979, her body was found on a concrete floor, near a window in an abandoned wing of the building. She was naked, and her clothes were found neatly folded near her body. An autopsy concluded she had died of natural causes; and based on the significant decomposition of the body, she was estimated to have been dead for 4-5 weeks prior to discovery. Although the floor was supposedly cleaned after removing her body, as of December 2007, a distinct white stain in the shape of a body was evident on the concrete floor. This “stain” has spawned numerous ghost stories in the community; and until recently, the stain had not been chemically analyzed. In March 2007, the authors performed such an analysis. The analysis produced strong evidence for both natural decomposition products and deliberate adulteration. Microscopic analyses, solubility tests, infrared spectroscopy, inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, pyrolysis-mass spectrometry, and derivatization gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were consistent in determining the removable parts of the stain to be composed mostly of calcium and sodium salts of free fatty acids, such as palmitic acid, consistent with previous descriptions of adipocere (a fatty or waxy substance produced in decomposing bodies exposed to moisture). The free fatty acids could have been formed through known bacterial degradation pathways or by means of saponification through the basic environment caused by contact with the concrete. 6 figures, 2 tables, and 25 references