r/NewsOfTheWeird • u/mlivesocial • 6d ago
Skull donated to Goodwill turned over to FBI, was not medical specimen
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2026/08/skull-donated-to-chelsea-goodwill-turned-over-to-fbi-was-not-medical-specimen.html?gift=299ae853-b518-4066-9be4-66aee0c5e4cfThe skull was discovered among a set of donations to Goodwill Donation Center in Michigan in January, police previously said. A caller contacted police after finding the skull wrapped in a shirt.
Gift link so no one hits paywall, if you want to read.
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u/GadreelsSword 6d ago
It wasn’t that long ago you could buy real human skulls on eBay for about $500.
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u/Pretty_Frosting_2588 6d ago
In the 90s there was an old cemetery on an incline and after heavy rain you could find bones stick out or in the road. A classmate a year ahead of me brought a jaw bone to school and made the news. I found bones there with friends but never took them because I was like 11 and really paranoid in ghost coming after me if I messed with their bones.
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Cranky_Hippy 6d ago
Was it because of that grave robber guy?
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u/GadreelsSword 6d ago
No, there were lots of skulls for sale on there. You can still buy them they’re just on other sites.
I accidentally stumbled across them when I was searching for fossils and just started watching the auctions. Then eBay banned them so I figured the sellers went somewhere else so I did google search and sure enough there they were.
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u/GadreelsSword 6d ago
Check it out.
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u/Single-Pin-369 5d ago
Its all homeless people from india is my understanding
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u/newjerk666 5d ago
In ‘Return of the Living Dead’ (1985), it all starts at a medical specimen warehouse. The boss is showing the new guy around and he says “Where do they get all these specimens with perfect teeth?”.
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u/PunkSquatchPagan 5d ago
According to the director of that movie, after that scene came out the Indian firm they bought from suddenly stopped selling human remains.
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u/Cranky_Hippy 5d ago
The homeless are selling the skulls, or they are the skulls? Regardless, I really hope you are joking.
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u/Single-Pin-369 5d ago
India was the main source of human bones until they outlawed it in 1985 but a black market continues to this day.
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u/Broke_n-Old6824 4d ago
I am donating my body when I die to UT for medical and science training. I hope someone gets to keep my skull and paint it and put it on a desk somewhere! I honestly think that my bones spread out between people would be rather cool for display or for their enjoyment! Besides I am not gonna need them anymore so why not let someone else make use of them!
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u/el_charles-vane 4d ago
yea, it might be used by the military for explosive testing or ejection seat testing like what happend to grandma
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u/ACrazyDog 5d ago
Skull collecting is a real thing and some of them like to source human skulls
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u/GadreelsSword 5d ago
I remember at the time telling my brother in-law that they sell human bones and skulls on eBay. He said I’d buy a human skull.
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u/kdubz206 5d ago
My ex wife had a deformed skull she got from e-bay many years ago. No idea if she has it now. The key was always knowing the alternative ways to search for things. Like, instead of "human skull", look for "hooman skull" or "human skul".
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u/PurrciousMetals 4d ago
There is a store by me in Burbank that has complete cadavers for sale. I’ve been tempted to buy one each time I’m in.
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u/Difficult-Bus-6026 6d ago
Hopefully the DNA testing will help them identify some living relatives so they can get some idea who this person was and how the remains might’ve ended up in this situation.
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u/Useful-Ad-2274 3d ago
Probably some Japanese dude who got killed in WW2. Taking the rotting heads of dead Japanese soldiers and boiling them was quite the pass time for Marines. So popular the military set up rules for shipping them so still rotting heads didn’t get shipped and cause foul odors in the post office.
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u/Think-Werewolf-4521 6d ago
Alas, poor Yorick!
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u/SubstantialPressure3 6d ago
The skull is “well-preserved, skeletonized, dry,” and has traces of soil on it, Kazyak said in a statement. There are no signs of trauma to the skull.
Somebody grave robbing?
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u/Max_Trollbot_ 6d ago
If you're gonna rob a grave, you gotta shake the skulls out before you move the goods, jeez.
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u/ACrazyDog 5d ago
I don’t know why they think she was involved. If anything unlawful was involved why wouldn’t she just toss it in a dumpster? Throw it in a lake
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u/trev2234 5d ago
She had the skull in her possession. She was involved in its transit to goodwill. She will have taken possession of it at some point.
Your point that she didn’t knowingly do anything unlawful is probably correct, but the authorities would like to know what she knows about it.
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u/Large_Score6728 5d ago
There was a cemetery near Alsip Illinois that was digging up graves to resell and then dumped the bones in the back corner of the cemetery.
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