Man buys $200 worth of animal skulls from seller, allegedly gets 2 bones for ‘free.’ Then he takes a closer look: ‘Brilliant way to get rid of evidence’

A man visiting a Renaissance market has received a little more than he bargained for when he was given some “free” bones that appear to be human.

Bigbugburger told his story on Reddit, explaining that he’d arranged to buy $200 worth of animal skulls from a seller, who “decided to throw these two in for free”. The added picture shows what appears to be a human femur and a rib.

The poster said he’d already taken this to r/bonecollecting, where the “overwhelming consensus” was that these are “a human femur and likely a human rib”. He promptly contacted his local police station this morning, who told him they’re going to come by “at some point today”. He concludes, “not sure what to make of the situation overall”.

Is there an innocent explanation?

Comments were quick to throw out some theories about what might be going on here, with one noting that this is a “brilliant way to get rid of evidence” and that “the seller discovered a new way to hide a body”.

Calmer heads soon prevailed, with the user rainbird saying they believe this is very likely an antique anatomical teaching specimen:

First, notice the flaky, peeling layer visible on the shaft and near the ends of the femur. Historically, natural human bones that were prepared for medical or classroom study were coated with something like a shellac, lacquer, or varnish to seal them. That makes them durable for handling with students, and also keeps residual bone fats from seeping out. But over decades (this looks 50-60 years old), the old shellac/varnish coating degrades, yellows, and peels off.

They go on to note other characteristics of “aging anatomical preparations”, and say there’s no evidence this has been exposed to the elements, “if it was pillaged from a graveyard, it would be inconsiderably worse shape.”

TralalaBOOMdeay also notes that even if this is a human bone, selling and owning it isn’t necessarily illegal. They link to The Conversation, which references the case of Cedric Lodge,a morgue manager who pleaded guilty to selling human remains.

This underlines that “the sale of human remains is broadly and expressly illegal in only eight states: Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia” and that “In fact, it is surprisingly easy to purchase human remains in the United States.

All that said, this refers to people who intentionally purchase human remains. Having a couple of random human body parts tossed in as freebies alongside your animal skulls isn’t normal.

But perhaps this thing happens more often than you’d think. For example, a Florida thrift store was left creeped out when a human skull was anonymously donated to them, and it may have a dark historical context to it.