Skull parts, headstone found near Jefferson City

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Authorities are trying to determine the origins and identities of a skull, a partial skull and an incomplete headstone found along a creek bed in southern Callaway County.

A person walking along Old Highway 94 on Sunday found the bones and partial headstone on a private farm, Dennis Crane said Wednesday. The sheriff doesn't believe the remains are from a recent murder or missing person's case, The Jefferson City News-Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/185AwSI ).

"At this point, we don't have any reason to believe that," Crane said. "But we're going to do all the things that we need to do."

An anthropologist will study the bones and headstone, which were sent to the Boone-Callaway County medical examiner's office.

Crane said the partial skull was only the top part of the head.

"The indication is, maybe this person has been through an autopsy or something like that -- just because there was a very surgical cut around that skull. It's not like it's been broke or fractured or something like that," he said.

Information from the headstone, including part of a name, is being shared with area historical societies.

Crane suggested the items also could have come from coffins and bodies that were swept downstream during floods in 1993 and 1995, or from a native burial ground found in the area years ago.

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Information from: Jefferson City News Tribune, http://www.newstribune.com