Hollister
– It’s not every day someone finds the human skull of a person
who lived several centuries ago inside a box tucked away in his or
her garage.
Hollister – It’s not every day someone finds the human skull of a person who lived several centuries ago inside a box tucked away in his or her garage.
But Mike Stanghellini found one barely intact in the garage of his Liberty Court home, which he has owned since 2005, and called the Hollister Police Department.
Authorities do not know how the skull made its way into the garage. But they do know it dates back to the 1700s and is from an adult male American Indian, said Rosie Betanio, spokeswoman for the Hollister Police Department. Since the discovery, the remains were collected for a proper American Indian burial.
Finding American Indian remains in the county can be rare, Betanio said. The coroner’s office and an anthropologist are called up to four times a year to determine the origin of found bones.
The homeowner, who discovered the skull June 10, could not be reached for comment.
Betanio said the previous owner at the Liberty Court home may have found the skull and just left it in the garage.
A police officer took the skull and handed it over to the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office, also the county coroner, Betanio said.
Whenever authorities find a skull, they call in an anthropologist to determine if it’s modern.
Clyde Homen, a retired San Benito Joint Union High School social science teacher and trained anthropologist, was called in to look at the skull found on Liberty Court.
Broken when pulled from the ground, the skull was pre-Spanish, Homen said. The anthropologist said dirt inside the skull – an indication of how it was buried – and markings on its one tooth showed the skull was that of an adult male American Indian.
The sheriff’s office called a representative from the California Native American Heritage Commission to collect the remains to give the proper burial, Betanio said.
California Health and Safety code requires a county coroner to make a report if human remains are disturbed outside of a dedicated cemetery to determine if a crime had been committed, or if the remains might be those of an American Indian.
The coroner then has 24 hours to contact the Native American Heritage Commission if he determines the remains are not subject to his authority and recognizes the remains to be those of an American Indian.
The last time the sheriff’s office found what might have been American Indian remains was in October 2006. A city worker repairing a water main on Third Street in San Juan Bautista uncovered small human bone fragments.
Detectives could not tell if they were American Indian in origin and were told to recover the remains.
Homen said it’s not rare for him to be asked to determine the origin of human bones found in the county.
“I think there’s an awful lot of farmers around here who, when they plowed their fields, found bones,” Homen said.
He added, “If we have a very wet year, I’ll get called three or four times.”
Many years ago, Homen determined for the coroner that a woman’s remains found off Union Road were modern, he said.
If the remains are modern, Homen’s involvement ends and an investigation begins.
“I took one look at it and said it’s not Indian and that was it for me,” Homen said.
That woman was believed to be a homicide victim, Homen said.
