In this day and age we have the benefit of science but in the 18th and 19th century there wasn't much of that. You know, you have ghost in your blood, do cocaine about it.
So when one member of the family died, then others around them also begin to get sick, suspicion often fell on the recently deceased.
For around 100 years New England was in the grip of a panic; panic that dead people were coming back to consume the life force of their relatives. Long before the word vampire became pop culture, these people feared these relatives had turned into these creatures and were tormenting their living relatives.
So what do you do when the dead are coming back to hurt the living? Dig them up and desecrate their body of course.
ROH EP 57 Source Notes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Brown_vampire_incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewett_City_vampires
https://www.damnedct.com/the-jewett-city-vampires-griswold/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/
