Police investigate human skull found in creek

BY RON JACKSON

Published: October 11, 2008

ARDMORE — Children playing in a neighborhood creek found a human skull Thursday night, presenting state and local investigators with a challenging mystery to solve.

"When I first heard about the skull, I thought it probably had something to do with Halloween — maybe a prank or something,” Ardmore police Capt. Ed Hardwood said. "But then we heard, no, it’s real. I started thinking about missing persons. Nothing struck me.”

Ardmore detectives scoured the brush of the creek bed Friday morning in search of any additional clues. No further evidence surfaced.

The state medical examiner’s office began studying the skull, and office spokeswoman Cherokee Ballard described it as having no teeth or signs of blunt force trauma.

"Our initial examinations indicate this might be a white male, based on the eye sockets and bone structure,” Ballard said. "We also found dried mud, indicating the skull had possibly been buried for days or months.”

Forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow will be called in for further analysis, Ballard said.

Snow might be able to provide a better determination of the skull’s age.

Examiners also ordered an X-ray to see if any evidence may be hidden within the skull.

"This isn’t that common, but not unusual, either,” Ballard said. "These kinds of cases usually come into our office 10 to 12 times a year, although not all of them turn out to be human remains.”