For as many as 36 years, the families who lived at 67 Forest Drive in Jericho resided in a house harboring a macabre secret, well-hidden in a claustrophobic crawl space.

Inside a three-foot-high passageway, located beneath an extension to the back of the house, was a 55-gallon black steel drum which entombed the remarkably preserved, virtually mummified, corpse of an unidentified young murdered woman, later discovered to be pregnant. The house's inhabitants had been living above a crime scene.

The shrunken, 57-pound body, found in a sitting position with the dead woman's arms at her side, was found when the barrel was opened on Thursday, September 2, one day after it was removed at the request of the home's new owner, Hamid Tafaghodi.

Tafaghodi and his family had only just bought the home from former proprietor Ronald Cohen earlier this summer, and wanted the item discarded. With the help of a moving crew, Cohen removed the drum from the crawl space. When the town refused to accept the barrel as refuse because the container's contents were not specified, Cohen and his realtor unsealed the drum, and with it, a decades-old murder mystery.

Upon opening the container, witnesses could see a hand and woman's shoe visibly protruding from the base of another container, turned upside-down and placed inside the original. Also stuffed inside was a large amount of industrial-grade, moisture-absorbing grain which, along with the air-tight conditions, contributed to the body's preservation.

A careful autopsy of the young woman, performed by the Nassau County Medical Examiner's Office, uncovered a skull fracture, suggesting that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, the result of multiple blows from an object. Further examination revealed that the woman was carrying a full-term fetus. "That could give us some motive," said Sergeant Robert Edwards of Homicide.

Nassau County Homicide detectives hope that the autopsy findings, as well as evidence found accompanying the body, will emerge as key clues in unraveling a mystery which has shocked and intrigued Jericho.

According to Edwards, detectives are still in the early stages of an investigation which will require painstaking and tedious research - maybe a lucky break or two as well. "The investigation is a few days old, but the body's probably been dead for 30 years, so it takes a little time to catch up," said the sergeant. In fact, before they can even determine who committed the crime and why, investigators must first learn who the victim is and further narrow down the time frame during which she may have died.

The victim, whom no one has claimed, has been described as a 4' 9" Caucasian or Hispanic between the age of 25 and 30, with long black hair. She was wearing several adornments which, in time, may prove invaluable to the investigation, though so far they have not led to any breakthroughs.

The murdered woman was found wearing a locket that seems to indicate her first name. The round, golden jewelry item bears the inscription, "Patrice, Love Uncle Phil". Police were hoping to find a photograph on the inside of the locket. "Unfortunately," said Edwards, "anything that was inside of there is gone."

The victim also wore a wedding band, the inside of which had another inscription, this one a bit cryptic - "M.H.R. XII-59". The detectives' primary theory is that the Roman numerals and the 59 stand for December 1959 and the initials are that of the victim. However, the first-name initial M. conflicts with the name Patrice, engraved on the locket.

Police recently received a phone call suggesting the initials might actually stand for Most Holy Rosary. This theory is considered substantial because police also found a homemade scapula - a religious ornament - around the victim's neck. "We're certainly reaching out to convents and things of that nature to see if this type of ring would be used in some type of religious affiliation," Edwards said.

The victim also wore a ring with an oval, jade stone. The clothes she wore were described as a button-down sweater, a skirt, an imitation leopard-skin coat, high socks and shoes.

Detectives thought they received a big break when they found the card of a Hoboken, New Jersey doctor in the woman's pocketbook, which also was in the drum. Experts were able to make out the faded card of a Dr. Frank D'Alberti. Police hoped D'Alberti could help identify the woman, but the doctor said that he routinely destroys records older than 10 years.

Police have had difficulty obtaining all sorts of missing persons records because of the case's age. Investigators are checking records in metropolitan New York, Long Island and New Jersey. "There's many obstacles," admitted Edwards. "Most of the records that we're seeking require a hand search. Since 1982, everything's been computerized. But before that, everything was done by hand, and it's not always that easy to access those old files today. A lot of them haven't been brought up to date into the computer."

Though the woman's teeth had gold bridgework done to them, there are no dental records with which to compare them. "There's no clearinghouse where you would send these things in like fingerprints," explained Edwards. A DNA test performed on the woman would be similarly fruitless for the same reason. However, it is possible that a DNA test on the fetus could be performed. Results from such a test could reveal the baby's father if his DNA is on record.

Edward said that, despite all these obstacles, the investigation is "moving forward."

For example, what began as an investigation spanning the house's construction in 1957 to the present has been narrowed to merely a decade - from 1963-1972. Investigators learned that the steel drum was only manufactured in March of 1963, and they are now seeking its shipping records.

Furthermore, after interviewing former homeowners, detectives now believe that the container was first seen in October of 1972. Edwards said that the police "don't have any reason to believe that somebody went into that crawl space and put that body in there [after the container] was first noticed." Since that initial discovery, the house has changed ownership three times. The house has had five owners prior to Tafaghodi.

Edwards said that the police have looked up the ownership records of the house and have been speaking with its former residents.

Anyone with information regarding the woman's identity can call 1-800-244-TIPS. Callers remain anonymous.