When she retired, Abigail Stone bought a little house in Vancouver, Washington. She had been drawn to the property by the huge arborvitae hedges on the east and west side of the property. After a moderate wind storm took down one of the trees in the east hedge, Abigail decided it might be wise to have the hedge pruned.

The arborist she hired stated he had never seen an arborvitae hedge so tall. It was his guesstimate that the trees were at least 75-years old and had never been pruned. Midway through the pruning of the massive hedge, the arborist stopped work. Wrapped around the ninth tree in the tall, dense hedge was a human skeleton.

Abigail Stone has solved several mysteries since she moved to Vancouver. But this was her biggest challenge. Skeletons don’t have pockets to carry identification. She and a reporter from the local newspaper followed many leads and were able to identify the bones as well as solve another mystery connected to them.

The tall, dark green, row of a once stately arborvitae hedge barely quivered in the morning breeze. Although it is a bit rag-tag, the hedge is still beautiful. It was not until a moderate wind storm took down the shortest tree in the hedge that I really paid attention to the row of trees.

True, it was what drew me to the property in the first place but, once I owned it, I never really thought about the arborvitae again.

Perhaps it was time, or at least prudent, to have the hedge trimmed. One of the members at church owns a yard service and I asked for a recommendation for someone to trim the hedge. Surprisingly, he knew only one ‘good’ tree trimmer. At least, good enough to trim 40 foot arborvitae. Apparently, not only are arborvitae a different type of ‘tree’, they also require different care.

The tree man recommended has been in the business over forty years. He told me over the phone that arborvitae are like a marriage. They grow together and form a formidable wall against all comers for many, many years. You cannot tell where one tree ends and another begins. If the trees are not maintained they begin to grow apart. Usually the separation begins at the top as new growth is sparser and soon the tip of each tree is well defined. Then, in another five years or so, they seem to separate along the body of the tree. One tree will lean forward, another back or some to the right or the left. And what was once a tall, beautiful, stately hedge of trees becomes a lot of trees in a piggly-wiggly row.

I told him that he was describing the very condition of my arborvitae hedge. He made an appointment to see the trees.

His first impression was that these trees are at least 75 years old. He had never seen arborvitae so large. He’s seen them this old but never this tall. He was amazed. Some of the trunks were more than 10 inches in diameter at the height he figured he should trim. The tree man gave me an estimate to trim. While it seemed rather high, I realized that he’s talking trimming about 18 or 20 trees and taking them down by 15 or 20 feet. I shook hands on the estimate and we set a date for the deed. A small crew arrived early on the agreed date—about 6:10am or so. Some of the neighborhood children watched the initial cuts into the hedge while waiting for their school bus.

When the trimming crew arrived, several neighbors came to voice a concern that the hedge was going to be removed. The trimmer and I had discussed removal and I voted against it. I am used to the buffer it provides. The hedge buffers both sound and weather. The tree trimmer told the neighbors that the trees would not be removed but would be trimmed by one half, or so.

A couple of the retired neighbors hung around for an hour or so to watch the slow, but steady, topping of the hedge. The crew cut from the lane side so I could only see the tree tops disappear one at a time. It was rather eerie from my viewpoint. And the view was very strange after the first three cuts. It was not until then I realized how tall the hedge truly was. I decided I did not need to supervise and went into the house to read the morning newspapers. Though I had been living in the house a relatively short time, seeing the top of the first three trees disappear was unsettling.

The tools were interesting. I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t a long handled pruning fork and a chain saw. I am sure there were other tools, but those were all I saw being used on the house side of the hedge. Apparently the trimming became boring to the crowd of neighbors as they had slowly dissipated. The crew continued doggedly. I could hear the hum of the chain saw and the men calling to one another as they worked. I don’t know why I expected a lot of noise. It was not much noisier than the street is every day. They had completed nearly half trees before I heard the foreman shout. At first, I didn’t realize what he said and then he yelled out again. “Hold up! There’s something odd looking in this tree.”

Two men came from the lane side of the hedge at his call. They talked together before the boss came to the house and knocked timidly on the door.

“Ma’am, we’ve run into what could be a bit of a problem. Would you come out to the hedge?” I thought that rather strange. How much of a problem could there be in a hedge?

The foreman separated the branches at about the place they would make the next cut on tree number nine. He beckoned to the man with the saw. “Thank God everyone has drifted off. What does this look like to you?” He pointed to an odd gathering of matter which seemed wrapped around or wrapped in the tree.

The saw man peered closer than stepped back with his mouth agape, “It kind of looks like a skeleton to me.” The foreman nodded. That’s what he thought too. Then he waved me over to look at the debris in the arborvitae. I nodded. That’s what I thought I saw, too. A skeleton! In my hedge!

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