June 16, 1982 — Brian Thomas Gallagher is born at a hospital on the military base at Fort Knox, Kentucky, weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces after a normal pregnancy. He is the firstborn son of Shawn and Mary Pat Gallagher and lives less than an hour due to complications during delivery.
A week later — Knowing Fort Knox is not their long-term home, the Gallaghers bury Brian at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Highmore, South Dakota, near his father's extended family.
2019 — Now retired and planning to be buried at Black Hills National Cemetery outside Sturgis, the couple arranges to have Brian's remains relocated so they can one day rest beside him. Funeral director Tiffany Hofer of Highmore is retained for the disinterment.
The discovery — A backhoe pierces the original casket. Opening it to transfer the body, Hofer finds it astonishingly free of any sign of decay: entirely intact 37 years after burial, lifelike in color and form, supple skin, full facial features, no drying, wrinkling, odor, mold, mildew or disfigurement. In her words, he looked like he was sleeping.
November 8, 2019 — Shawn and Mary Pat travel to Highmore with two of their children and Shawn's sister. Photographs are taken, including one of Mary Pat holding her son again. Brian is placed in a new casket and reburied at Black Hills National Cemetery, with a Catholic priest assisting.
March 2025 — Mary Pat attends a presentation by author Bri Edwards at a Catholic church in Spearfish, South Dakota. Edwards, who lost her own infant son Lachlan to SIDS, urges her not to keep the story quiet and begins collecting witness testimonials, photographs and documentation.
May 2025 — babybrian.org launches, publishing the funeral director's testimony, the parents' accounts, other witness statements and the photographs.
May 27, 2026 — After the story is presented to the Diocese of Rapid City, the parents receive word from the diocesan chancellor that an active investigation has been opened with the intention of establishing its miraculous nature.Why it resonates Fr. Axtmann points to two things: the comfort it brings parents who have lost children in the womb or in infancy, and its force as a faith-building sign that God is present and active in the modern world. He notes the Gallaghers are cradle Catholics who met at Mount Marty in Yankton, South Dakota — Shawn went on to a law degree from the University of Notre Dame, Mary Pat to a master's in education — and that they were not seeking publicity; they simply did not know how to share the story for five years. Fr. Axtmann was the celebrant at their 50th wedding anniversary on July 18. He calls it a resurrection story: birth, death, and this appearance of an incorrupt child.
Full story, witness testimony and photographs: babybrian.org
Media coverage, including the Dive Deep interview with Brian's brother Thomas Gallagher from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois: babybrian.org/media
Bri Edwards' book: A Thousand Pounds
The retreat center where Fr. Axtmann assists in ministry: siouxspiritualcenter.orgHear more segments and full episodes of The Catholic Morning Show at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
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Credits: Produced, Edited, and Mixed by Ayden Pugh, Alexia Baker, and Brady Grimm.
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