In 1977, during the restoration of the Shy Mansion in Franklin, TN workers noticed a disturbance in the estate’s family cemetery.  A grave had been opened, a hole cut in the cast iron case, and a body lay half out of the grave.  When they called the authorities in, the sheriff determined it to be a recent homicide where the culprit had attempted to hide the body in the older grave.  He sent the body to Nashville for examination by Dr. William Bass.  Bass noticed that the clothing on the deceased was not made of any synthetic fibers and the coat was in an older style.  When testing the tissues, he found that he was examining a body that had been embalmed with arsenic.  The man who lay on the table before him was Colonel William Shy in a perfect state of preservation 113 years after his death at the Battle of Nashville.