Mystery as human skull found in hunting area days before Christmas
A hunter discovered a human skull just a few days before Christmas in South Carolina.
The ‘hunter saw a round white object that was a human skull’ near St Paul’s Church Road and Economy Lane on December 21, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook on Monday.
Crime scene investigators ‘carefully recovered’ the skull and sent it to the coroner’s office.
The skull belonged to a person over age 35 and of African descent, a forensic examination showed. It had no signs of trauma.
Experts think the skull may be more than a decade old.
The skull did not match the data of any missing persons in the county.
Investigators hope to be able to identify the victim and determine the cause of death.
‘It is very sobering to discover human remains,’ stated Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis.
‘The person to whom the skull belongs deserves respect and our very best efforts to identify them. And if there was foul play, to bring them justice.’
No other human remains were found in the area in Sumter, which is about 45 miles east of Columbia and over 100 miles northwest of Charleston.
An investigation into the matter is in the beginning stages.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the sheriff’s office.
It is the second time that American hunters have uncovered a human skull within a five-week period. In mid-November, a hunter found a skull in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, KDKA reported. The victim was not immediately identified.
The disturbing discovery was made nearly a year after a human skeleton was found in an abandoned building at the University of California, Berkeley’s Clark Kerr campus. A university spokesperson in January 2023 said it was not clear how long the remains were in the structure that had not been used for many years.
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