Ok, this is pretty much solved.
Suzanne - I called with your questions and it turns out the woman I spoke to before had the wrong case. I remember seeing another report (while trying to find articles about this one) about two kids who were fishing and accidentally caught a skull. I think she pulled up that file instead of the one we're talking about here.
I spoke to an investigator this time, who found the anthropologist's report and gave me quite a bit of information.
Here is what he told me:
1. Many separate bones were found. The anthropologist found that the remains belonged to at least four different people.
2. The bones are over 75 years old and are most likely Native American.
3. The homeowners (who I'm assuming are history buffs) on the property were known to collect Native American bones.
4. There's evidence that whoever had these bones had tried to fix/reconstruct some of them with glue.
5. The anthropologist concluded that the bones ''are not of forensic significance''.
Not sure why you'd leave an old Native American skull on a tree, but okay. Maybe the homeowners were tired of people fishing near their property and thought the skull would scare them away. The kid interviewed in the news article certainly sounded freaked out. lol
Anyway, the investigator e-mailed me a copy of the report.
Here is a link to the report, for anyone interested.