Worker on smoke break spots infant skull in SC parking lot. Officials now investigate

A worker was on a smoke break when she spotted a human skull in a South Carolina parking lot, police said.

The woman told investigators she was around the side of the building where she worked the afternoon of Dec. 2 when she saw the skull, the North Charleston Police Department said in a news release.

She told investigators the skull had come out of a plastic bag that also contained clothing tags.

Police and the coroner’s office arrived, and they were able to determine the object was a small skull missing its jaw, officers said.

Based on the “size and marking features,” the skull appeared to have belonged to a newborn, police said.

Police said surveillance footage from previous days showed a man wearing a hat and dark clothing dropped off a shopping bag in the parking lot Nov. 30 at about 6:30 p.m. and “quickly walked away down the alley.”

In the video, the man looks back at the bag as he’s leaving, police said.

The coroner’s office said the skull appeared to have been used as a “scientific teaching aid,” according to police.

The coroner is processing the remains as the North Charleston police’s evidence team processes the clothing tags, police said.

A spokesperson for the North Charleston Police Department in a Dec. 5 update said the skull was of “no forensic significance and an anatomical specimen used likely for teaching.”

Police said it’s unknown how the man got the skull.

This story was originally published December 4, 2023 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Worker on smoke break spots infant skull in SC parking lot. Officials now investigate."