An anthropologist shopping at a store in North Fort Myers on Saturday spotted what officials determined was probably a human skull.

An anthropologist made a surprising discovery in a Florida thrift shop’s Halloween section on Saturday, officials said.

The North Fort Myers shopper spotted a skull and recognized it as a human skull, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. Responding detectives also determined the skull belonged to a human.

The store owner said the skull had been in a storage unit that was purchased years ago, authorities said.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is working with the local medical examiner to run further tests on the skull. Officials do not believe the case is suspicious in nature.

  • HurlingDurling@lemm.eeEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    In a lot of Catholic Latin homes in South America, it’s customary to have a skull to ward off evil spirits.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
    221·
    1 year ago

    Officials do not believe the case is suspicious in nature

    Maybe it’s not evidence of a murder or whatever but it is suspicious. Where can you get a human skull as a random individual which isn’t suspicious? Like even taking it home from a donated body or an archeological site is suspicious.

    • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
      341·
      1 year ago

      In the US there’s at least one shop, to the best of my knowledge, that actually sells human parts like skull, femurs etc (JonsBones). So, there might be a legal source 😊

      • ArtieShaw@kbin.social
        5·
        1 year ago

        It could be from a modern collector because as you mentioned, there are only a few states where it’s illegal to buy skeletal parts. My guess is that someone inherited it from an old family collection and didn’t want to deal with it.

        A few generations ago it wasn’t completely unusual for a doctor to have a human skull in his office or study. Eventually Gramps dies, his kids or grandkids inherit his stuff, and now they have a skull that they might remember fondly but don’t exactly want to display in their front parlor. So they hide it away in a closet. Maybe in its carrying case, but who knows where Old Doc picked it up.

        The primary concern in the article seems to be that it was from a looted native grave. That is possible, even probable, given the suspected age. Article about a prolific grave robber from Indiana.

        The modern trade in legal skulls comes mostly from Asia (China and India, last time I checked). They’re also quite expensive ($2-3k), so it’s not likely a modern collector lost track of it among the contents of a storage shed.

    • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      There is a trade of human bones for both medical reasons and to collectors. They almost always come from international sources and are generally legal. Once the hit the US market that is. Before that it can be very hard to tell for sure.

      Taking them from donated bodies is mixed depending on the context of donation and taking them from archeology sites is 100% illegal.

      • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Yep there sure is. The origin of the bones is often somewhat nefarious but not necessarily illegal (it depends, it is complicated and due to the international nature of the trade is hard to track). Once they are just bones and in the market in the USA completely legal to trade and own human body parts.

  • Mint_Raccoon@kbin.social
    13·
    1 year ago

    The place this happened isn’t actually a thrift store, it’s an antique mall. Though, to be fair, a lot of the products did come from thrift stores. Here’s a more detailed article.

    Once I saw it was Lee county I knew the exact place it happened and whose booth had the skull. My mother is actually one of the vendors there.

    Edit: Fixed a formatting error.