A thrift shopper made a grisly discovery in a Florida store last weekend. The shop hadn’t taken down its Halloween display yet. The shopper—who also happened to be an anthropologist—was looking over the Halloween decorations when he noticed an actual human skull. The shop owner was just as surprised as he was.
Police were called to the store in North Fort Myers when the skull was discovered. The unidentified shopper had called the cops when he believed that the skull was actually human remains. He was correct in his assumption. Detectives from the Major Crimes Unit with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the skull had come from an actual human cadaver.
The store owner let the police know that he had purchased the skull, not knowing it was real, when he bought the contents of an abandoned storage unit years ago. The sheriff’s office does not suspect foul play.
Under Florida law, dealing in dead bodies is technically a crime. That includes buying, selling, or possessing human remains. Since the shop owner had purchased the skull in an innocent exchange and didn’t know he was buying a real skull at the time, there was no need to charge him with a crime.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement about the incident, saying, “The Lee County Sheriff’s Office will work in conjunction with the District 21 Medical Examiner’s Office to facilitate further testing of the skull.”
They don’t know if the skull came from a science lab, a museum, or somewhere else at this point. The Medical Examiner’s Office will try to determine the identity of the deceased. It’s unclear what will happen to the skull if they are unable to find out who it belonged to or where it came from.
