A Lowndes County Man Discovers A Human Skull In His Backyard

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A Lowndes County resident makes an unnerving discovery on his property Tuesday evening.

Investigators say the man discovered a human skull in his backyard off of Hughes Road.

Coroner Greg Merchant says it was very easy to identify the skull as human.

Investigators have been out here all day, trying to determine if there are any other remains around the area.

“We know it’s somebody. We do not know that so we’re just going to determine who it is at this point,” says Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department, Criminal Investigations Division, Captain Greg Wright.

Several pieces of bone were discovered in the backyard of this home and in the surrounding woods.

Lowndes County Investigators believe the owner’s dogs are how the remains wound up in plain sight.

“They’re very curious and we’ve seen them out here digging around in the woods and things like that, so we think a lot of these animal bones and possibly well, I mean we can’t think of any other way it would have got there, that they have possibly recovered it, dug it up somewhere, and brought it here.”

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant says the dogs could lead investigators to more evidence.

“A t-shirt or some clothing could be put on these dogs and let them wear it and get their smell on it, and then we could possibly bring a dog out, a K9, that could follow that scent trail of where these dogs are going and that’s not out of the question.”

The coroner says other than the skull, he’s confident the other bones are from animals.

Investigators will keep looking for other possible human remains, until they’re confident they’ve found all they can.

Merchant says several things come into play in this investigation, that could widen the search area.

“There’s been a couple of projects through the area that kind of peak my interest that could have unearthed this sometime in the past. Of course, we’ve got a lot of high water right now to contend with, and that would make it you know, something to move it from place to place.”

The coroner and Captain Wright both say the skull has some age to it and is not believed to be a part of any current missing person cases in the area.

“This was a farm area, a farming area. I don’t know that there could be an independent grave or something that was buried through time out here. There’s not any cemeteries that’s within a close, reasonable area of here.”

Merchant also says the skull has no trauma to it and believes it has been somewhat protected from elements.

The coroner is working closely with MSU’s Archaeology Department to try to determine the race and gender of the skull.

He also says he will be taking the skull to the State Crime Lab in Pearl.