Hunters find human skull in South Carolina; sheriff vows "best efforts" to ID victim and bring justice

Authorities said a skull found in a hunting area in South Carolina belonged to someone who was African American, and older than 35 — but police still trying to figure out their identity.

Hunters discovered the skull on Dec. 21 in Sumter, a small city in central South Carolina about an hour east of Columbia. They contacted the Sumter County Sheriff's Office after one hunter spotted a round white object that appeared to be human remains, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

Authorities recovered the skull and sent it to the coroner's office for a forensic exam. The results showed it belonged to an African American person older than 35, according to the sheriff's office. But authorities could not find anyone in Sumter County's database of missing people who matched the remains. 

The sheriff's office said the skull is believed to be more than a decade old, citing experts. No other human remains were discovered in the area where it was found.

Authorities said they hope investigators will be able to identify the remains and determine how the person died.

In a statement, Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said, "It is very sobering to discover human remains."

"The person to whom the skull belongs deserves respect and our very best efforts to identify them and bring them justice," Dennis said.

The discovery in South Carolina marked the second time in just over a month that a human skull was happened upon by hunters in the United States, although there is no evidence to suggest the incidents were related. Pennsylvania State Police troopers launched an investigation in mid-November after a hunter stumbled upon a human skull while hunting in a wooded area, CBS Pittsburgh reported.

The skull was found in Lawrence County, which in far-western Pennsylvania near the state's border with Ohio. Authorities discovered about 20 other bones in the vicinity when they began to search the area, as well as some clothing, according to the station. They believed the remains had been in the woods for several years and said at the time that an odontologist would examine the teeth to try to identify the person to whom the bones belonged. 

CBS News contacted Pennsylvania State Police on Wednesday to see if there have been developments in the case then. That discovery in November followed another similar one last February, when two sets of human remains, including one human skull, were found in the woods in New Castle, which is only a few miles from Lawrence County, according to CBS Pittsburgh.

In:
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Missing Person

Emily Mae Czachor

Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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