- Please don’t dispose of your extra skulls by trying to donate them to charity.
Hunting for bargains at Goodwill can be a lot of fun. You never know when you might stumble upon a treasure that someone has left there to be sold for pennies.
You may also find something absolutely horrific – such as a human skull.
That’s what an unidentified woman dropped off at a Michigan Goodwill store. In a bundle of regular used goods, the store staff discovered a skull.
The employees alerted the police, who quickly got to work to determine the skull’s authenticity. It turns out that it was the real deal, and the cops even figured out some basic details of the person it once belonged to.
They also discovered that the skull was some kind of scientific or medical model. And that’s where the known facts end.
Is this the skull of a murder victim? Where did it come from? Why did the woman have the skull and leave it at Goodwill?
‘Accidental’ Item
The macabre events got their start already at the beginning of the year. On January 26, a so-far unidentified woman entered a Goodwill donation center in Chelsea, Michigan.
According to security camera footage, she wore a dark jacket and pants, alongside a pair of large dark sunglasses. Appearing to be in her 40s to 50s, she had shoulder-length dark brown hair with bleached highlights.
The woman left a bunch of things as a donation to the store. She then walked out without further ado.
“[The woman] donated some to the Goodwill store in Chelsea. One of the items appears to have been accidentally included in the donations,” the Chelsea Police Department (CPD) said in an initial statement.
The thing “accidentally” left in the donation pile was a human skull. According to the police, it had been neatly wrapped in a shirt, possibly to keep it from being immediately spotted.
Some Answers, More Questions
After the Goodwill store staff noticed the skull, they alerted the CPD about a “suspicious item.” The cops picked up the skull and began evaluating whether it was authentic and, if so, where it came from.
The immediate results of the investigation revealed that the skull had no “visible damage” or “uncharacteristic holes.” In other words, at least no one had visibly shot the skull’s owner in the head or bashed them with a heavy object.
However, that was all that the CPD could say. They turned the skull over to the University of Michigan’s anthropology department to find out more.
This study produced results by mid-August. This time, the news was a little more disconcerting.
According to the investigators, the skull had in life belonged to a 20-49-year-old African-American woman. However, the researchers couldn’t determine exactly when the woman had died.
The results stated that the skull was “well-preserved, skeletonized,” and had “traces of adherent soil.” To put that in plain language, the skull may have been buried as dirt was stuck to it.
In addition, the investigators determined that the skull was not a “teaching or medical specimen.” As such, it had not originated from a university’s cadaver or anatomy lab.
Is it evidence of a murder, then? To find that out, the CPD has delivered the skull to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Virginia, for further investigation.
Mystery Woman
But what about the woman who left the skull at Goodwill? Did she happen to find the skull coincidentally, or did she have something to do with why the skull is no longer attached to a living human?
The police would certainly love to know that. When the CPD initially announced the item “accidentally” left at Goodwill, it published the woman’s photos and asked the public for help finding the woman.
Later, the CPD said it had received more than two dozen tips about the woman’s identity. However, the cops have still not determined who or where she is.
At least they haven’t announced that.
For now, the investigation into both the skull and the mystery woman remains ongoing. We’ll certainly give you an update if the police publish more revelations later on.