Resolved FL - Tampa Bay, Male Skull, 25-40, Jun'08 - Religious Rite

[Sleuthster]

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingne...skull-fou.html




-- Tampa police were investigating an unexplained death after snorklers found a human skull near the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
Saturday afternoon, two snorklers found the skull about 1 mile west of the boat ramp near the Causeway, spokesman Cpl. Jared Douds said.
Police divers searched the north side of the causeway for additional bones and possible evidence. The search was expected to last until sunset, Douds said.
“If something else is uncovered or something else comes up, that may change,” Douds said.
The Hillsborough County medical examiner will attempt to determine the sex, age and cause of death of the person, he said


Wow this made me think of Oba Chandler right away. The boat ramp is where he took the mother and two daughters out and murdered them, and they where found around they same vicintity. Sure thats coinscidence but it gives me goose bumps.

Will be interesting to see what else they find.

[j2mirish]

my question is how can they determine cause of death, from a skull?
not much to go on imo

[Ms Suzanne]

Hi
Please keep me updated on this ok?Just the skull was found?Do you have a map of the area?

suzanne

[FLMom]

Originally Posted by Sleuthster

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingne...skull-fou.html




-- Tampa police were investigating an unexplained death after snorklers found a human skull near the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
Saturday afternoon, two snorklers found the skull about 1 mile west of the boat ramp near the Causeway, spokesman Cpl. Jared Douds said.
Police divers searched the north side of the causeway for additional bones and possible evidence. The search was expected to last until sunset, Douds said.
“If something else is uncovered or something else comes up, that may change,” Douds said.
The Hillsborough County medical examiner will attempt to determine the sex, age and cause of death of the person, he said


Wow this made me think of Oba Chandler right away. The boat ramp is where he took the mother and two daughters out and murdered them, and they where found around they same vicintity. Sure thats coinscidence but it gives me goose bumps.

Will be interesting to see what else they find.

Me too. . . the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title. Now we'll have to wait and see if they can figure out how long it's been there. Honestly gave me the willies. . . what Chandler did was so horrific with that mother and two daughters there had to be more victims.

[dottierainbow]

My first thought was Trenton Duckett.

[Sleuthster]

Suzanne

here is a map of the Courtney Campbell Causeway.

1 mile out (where they found the skull) is about parallel with Safety Harbor but closer to the other shore, below upper tampabay park.

You will have to zoom out a few times, pulling it up by the causeway name did a close up.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Ta...geocode=STREET

[Kiki]

Originally Posted by dottierainbow

My first thought was Trenton Duckett.

I think they would have mentioned if it was a child's skull and Trenton was so young it would have been readily apparent if it was him that the remains were of a young child.

[Sleuthster]

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2...+near+Causeway

TAMPA (Bay News 9) -- Snorkelers found a human skull near the Courtney Campbell Causeway Saturday, Tampa police say.
Police said the skull was inside of a clay pot floating in the water about one mile west of the boat ramp.
For hours divers from Tampa police scoured the bay for additional bones but nothing turned up.
"Right now, we don't want to speculate whether there was an actual crime scene out there or it might be something else involved," Sgt. Alan Draffin of the Tampa Police Department. "It might have been brought out later and put out. We can't speculate on any of that until the medical examiner does a little more research to find out how old the skull is how long it may have been in the water."
Police say the skull was pure bone, and it appeared to be fairly old.

A medical examiner will work to figure out the age, gender and cause of death of the person the skull belonged to.

A clay pot??? Weird...
They said that it looks really old. By the way I remember reading that artifacts where stolen from an indian mound museum around here last week. You know it may have something to do with that.

[becca]

my heart just moved to my throat.... Amanda Brown.... her body has never been found.

[Sleuthster]

I checked and there where artifacts stolen from Weedon Island Preserve but they where some kind of animal bones, no human skulls or pottery.

This is just bizzare to find a skull in pottery floating in Tampa Bay. Does pottery even float? If it where made of clay you would think it would sink and also if it had been there a long time why didnt someone see it before?

[Sleuthster]

I just saw another news story that said the pot was clay and that it was submerged in 4 feet of water. There is a picture of the pot on the front page of www.tbo.com click on the second news story.

[becca]

It is an adult head... so it isn't Amanda. Roy needs some closure. But maybe it will be for some other family of a missing person.

Did you read some of the comments at tbo? some people should back away from the keyboard until they are not under the influence of whatever it is that they are partaking in.

[Sleuthster]

Originally Posted by becca

It is an adult head... so it isn't Amanda. Roy needs some closure. But maybe it will be for some other family of a missing person.

Did you read some of the comments at tbo? some people should back away from the keyboard until they are not under the influence of whatever it is that they are partaking in.

LOL yes I agree. It is the same way on Sptimes.com. They say that when you don't use your brain your IQ goes down. With the unemployment numbers I've seen in Florida recently, I tend to think this is a true statement especially reading some of these comments.

[MeoW333]

Would it have washed up there from elsewhere?

[Sleuthster]

Originally Posted by MeoW333

Would it have washed up there from elsewhere?

It could have but the pot looks heavy that it was found in.

I have not seen anything else about this story locally other then the skull was at USF where the anthropology dept was looking at it to determine sex,race,cause etc

[Sleuthster]

The skull is of a white male 25-40 years old, it is going to a forensic artist.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jul...rensic-artist/

[Ms Suzanne]

Hi
Ok,Thankyou for keeping us updated on this.

suzanne

[ladygator]

I don't have a link but it's archived in the St. Pete Times, think thats where I read it anyway.

Oba Chandlers death warrant has been signed.

Thanks for the link showing it was an adult skull. I too thought of Amanda Brown.

[ladygator]

I was wrong. His warrant hasn't been signed yet. But he's 'death warrant ready'

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...icle657533.ece

[AmandaBrown23]

Originally Posted by ladygator

I was wrong. His warrant hasn't been signed yet. But he's 'death warrant ready'

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...icle657533.ece

it was creepy to read you guys talkin about Amanda Brown because thats my name.

[Donjeta]

Not sure what has become of this skull but this discussion
http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/...hp/t-6140.html
gives a Namus link
https://identifyus.org/cases/2193
which goes to an error page now. Also, helpfindthemissing forum posters quote the skull information from this site
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/me...identified.cfm
but the page does not contain that information any more.

It seems like the person might have been identified but I don't know who or how.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun...tney-campbell/

The medical examiner had confirmed that it was a human skull and was conducting further tests, Draffin said, in hopes of collecting DNA samples that can be matched to any missing persons or robbed graves.

As of Sunday morning, no one was drawing the conclusion that the skull was related to a homicide. It may be part of a religious rite, he said.

He said there were other items in the pot, but he would not elaborate. He said the items could have been put in the put along with the skull or they "may not be related."

I'm finding conflicting information about whether other bones were found. Some say yes, some say no. Possibly animal ones but not human? Don't know.

[Donjeta]

There were some decapitated animals found near the place where the skull was found, and a researcher is speculating that although it might sound like a religious rite it could be a more wayward thing because the animals were cast away.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep...news-breaking/

The animals may or may not be related but there was this comment about the skull:

The decapitated animals were found near the place snorkelers found a cauldron containing a skull in June, 2008. TPD is calling that case an "unexplained death." There were no signs of homicidal violence.