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(Stock photo)

HYDE PARK, Utah (AP) -- A woman renovating her basement found a surprise when she tore down a shower wall in her home: A gravestone dated from 1900.

The gravestone says it is that of 13-year-old Earl Stephen Balls.

Miriam Gunn was curious how it got into her home. Turns out the previous owner's 15-year-old son was finishing construction on the basement in the 1970s when he remembered a broken gravestone that was near an old cabin in the house's backyard. He decided it might be funny to seal up the stone inside the wall for someone to find years later.

Balls is buried in the Hyde Park Cemetery, a few hundred yards north of the Gunn home. His grave is marked by a smaller, more modern-looking stone than the one that was hidden in the wall.

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Information from: The Herald Journal

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