Police Find Owner Of 2 Human Skulls Found At Transfer Station In Stamford; Skulls Taken To Medical Examiner
STAMFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- Two human skulls found at a garbage processing station in Stamford belonged to an older man and woman, the state medical examiner has determined.
Police said the skulls were discovered by a worker sifting through garbage Thursday at the transfer station on Pumping Station Road. A mandible, several books on Satan and witchcraft, and videos were also found.
Police worked Friday to determine where they came from, a possible cause of death, and how they ended up at the transfer station, where trash from around Fairfield County is dumped.
Police: 2 Human Skulls Found At Transfer Station In Stamford
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported, the skulls were mixed in with the belongings of 56-year-old Robert Devitto of Fairfield, who recently died of illness. He lived with his father, also named Robert Devitto, who says he can't explain.
"He liked weird stuff like that," Devitto said of his son.
As CBS 2's Jessica Schneider reported, a lot of that "weird stuff" was cleaned out of the house after the younger Devitto's death.
"He was very into the occult, metaphysics, a lot of amulets and trinkets and crystals and books and DVDs on the subject," said junk hauler David Odice.
Odice is with the team from the company, Junkluggers, hired to clean out the younger Devitto's section of his father's home. When Odice came across the skulls, he thought they were plastic.
"Judging by the feel, we were touching them, with gloved hands, but again judging by the other ornaments and decorations around the house...really, really thought they were fake," Odice said.
Odice said because he believed they were plastic, the Junkluggers employees put them in with the recyclables and brought them to the Stamford transfer station.
It wasn't until the Junkluggers employees returned to the transfer station after another job and noticed a large police investigation there, that they realized the skulls were real.
Stamford Police Lieutenant Diedrich Hohn says the skulls were sent to the medical examiner's office, which determined the skulls were quite old, but did not determine exactly how old.
"They're sending them out to an anthropologist for the exact age. They did say the larger one was a male and the smaller one was a female," he said.
They also got a few more clues from the skulls' teeth.
"There was fillings in one of them, and the other one did lose teeth naturally," Hohn said.
Devitto said his son purchased the skulls online.
"He paid over a thousand dollars for those two skulls believe it or not," he said.
It is not illegal to possess human bones or sell them.
Stamford police hope they will get some answers from the anthropologist and get them back to where they belong.
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