BLOOMFIELD, Conn. -- Thieves took the head of a corpse of a woman who died in the 1930s from a mausoleum at a Bloomfield cemetery, police said.

Police said workers at the Mount Saint Benedicts Cemetery discovered the theft at about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday.

The corpse was identified as Maria Arcieri, who police said was 48 years old at the time of her death in December 1936.

Police said that Arcieri's out-of-state relatives had been informed of the theft.

Bloomfield police told Eyewitness News that the thief forced entrance into a secured mausoleum that contains six vaults.

Police said the head had been removed from the body and that it wasn't immediately clear whether anything else was taken.

Arcieri's vault and coffin were the only ones broken into, and police said that the thief had to pass by several other bodies before arriving gat Arcieri.

"It's certainly one of the more disturbing crimes we've dealt with," said Capt. Jeffery Blatter of the Bloomfield Police Department. "We're trying to determine whether this is the theft of the body or the contents therein."

Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Leon Collins reported that police remained at the cemetery on Thursday night and that the investigation was ongoing.

Bloomfield police requested that anyone who knows any of any local friends or family members of Arcieri to contact the department by dialing 860-242-5501.