A discarded Halloween prop prompted a death investigation that lasted about three and half hours Tuesday until Santa Fe police realized the skull was only plastic.

Deputy Police Chief Aric Wheeler said police were called to the corner of Hopewell and Sixth streets, where a woman walking her dog said she found a human skull in a vacant lot…

Police did not touch or move the skull, but a crime-scene technician took photos of it and sent them to The University of New Mexico to be analyzed by anthropologists. Two of the scientists who first looked at the photos told police they were dealing with human remains, but later, a supervisor who looked at the photos said the skull was not real…

Police will enter the skull into their evidence locker and label it as “found property.”

Santa Fe PD budget doesn’t allow for consulting with Grissom.



  1. GigG says:

    A friend of mine is a prosecutor. He thinks the worst thing that has happened in the last few years is the CSI shows. Juries and victims families expect all of this scientific to not only solve the crime but solve it in a hour or so.

  2. Steve says:

    #1 GG – If it were not for all the legal speak and bullshit from the attorney’s they probably could solve them in an hour.

    Then again I wouldn’t want them rushing to judgement on any case of mine.

    😉

    steve-o

  3. your-name-here says:

    I don’t watch CSI, but something tells me your friend is probably correct, GigG.

    How much did it cost the taxpayers of Santa Fe to find out it was a plastic skull? Why didn’t the crime-scene technician, who I would assume had the training and experience to deal properly with crime-scene evidence, just pick it up? It would have to have been picked up sooner or later so they could run tests on it in the lab.

    The whole thing is ridiculous.

  4. CDRaff says:

    Now I really feel like an idiot coming from New Mexico…

  5. ECA says:

    I try to tell a friend of mine, that those shows are to Make everyone paranoid..
    1/2 the stuff they do in the show ISNT real…
    as well as a CSI does NOT go out and hunt the murderer..
    they do their tests, and sit in the office, for the NEXT items…THATS ALL.
    They send data to the Police DETECTIVES, and they decide WHAT TO DO.

    And this skull?? Tap it with a Pen/pencil and they would have found it was fake in 10 seconds or LESS.

  6. Angel H. Wong says:

    Don’t these plastic skulls have a “Made in China” logo?

  7. zoredache says:

    }} Don’t these plastic skulls have a “Made in China” logo?

    The fine people from the PD may believe that all Chinese skulls include that logo.

  8. YVNH says:

    You have to seal off and search the area, take photos of everything, and draw up a crime scene sketch before you can touch the evidence. It’s better to be thorough than to risk destroying evidence.

    I always feel a little twinge whenever I see an investigator or detective on TV rush into a room and roll over the victim just to see the persons face. That’s a firing offense if I ever seen one.

  9. Marc says:

    Bones (from Fox’s own ‘CSI’ show) would have known immediately and then shot it with a Colt 45.

  10. andy says:

    anyone giving odds that this will eventually be in an episode of CSI?

  11. tallwookie says:

    #3 – I could find out if it was real or not for only $449.99 + labor in taxpayer dollars (aka the cost of a decent set of golf clubs + 25 minutes of smacking it around)…

    shit, *I* should be a CSI Investicgator


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