Mystery skull from 1974 found in police evidence room

Bradenton PD detectives recently found the partial remains of a human skull in the corner of the homicide evidence room. The box, placed there 36 years ago, had the word “Skull” in caps underlined twice, reports The Bradenton Herald.

 

An FBI invoice read, “examination of portion of human skull discovered in four inches of water near Bradenton on Sept. 28, 1974.”

Detectives are now trying figure out whose skull they found by using old newspaper clippings to search for any missing person, since the police department does not keep records dating back to the 1970s, according to the Herald.

Investigators at the police department originally sent the skull off for forensic testing to the FBI after the skull was found and it was mailed back Oct. 21, 1974, according to the evidence receipt. Curt Mayfield, who oversees the evidence room and has worked at the department for about 15 years, said stories told throughout the department over the years describe the skull belonging to an elderly man who wandered away from a nursing home.

Investigators now plan to send the lower half of the skull with no teeth to a Florida Department of Enforcement lab for carbon dating, reports the Herald.