Human Skull I Found While Out Hunting Today

Originally Posted By: Evil_Lurker Quote:Your friend might have been in an uncomfortable situation for a short period of time but the cops did their jobs.

What makes you think he's out of the woods yet? The cops have a body and exactly one name tied to it (as far as we know). That's not a pleasant position to be in.

Not only that, but he touched the skull and tracked the whole area up. Guess who's DNA forensic's is going to detect?My buddy found a dead guy sitting by the Wilson in Oregon while he was steelheading a few years back. Luckily, the body was still warm and the medical examiner deduced he had died of a heart attack. Until then, my friend was the prime suspect and they told him to remain at home until they contacted him.

It makes you think, you're putting a lot of trust in law enforcement to come to the correct conclusion.

I hope this turns out okay.



Which is a good reason NOT to touch the skull. Anything in the area of that scene COULD be evidence, and any handling of such evidence can taint same.

You could be right, evil. He may not be in the clear as of yet. HOWEVER.....the police have to eliminate him as a suspect as was mentioned. We are not privy to the investigation , but chances are he was cleared. He had a legit reason to be in the area (hunting). He was questioned and released. Again....most likely cleared.

Most law enforcement officers I know would hate to accuse the wrong guy. But in order to conduct a proper investigation, all angles must be covered and eliminated.

Oh, one more thing...taking pictures of anything which may be construed as evidentiary later on could be admitted in court as evidence. Putting such potential evidence on the internet COULD compromise the investigation. I wouldn't expect the OP to know this as he is not in law enforcement, but it is something everyone might want to think about lest we find ourselves in court with our pictures testifying in a murder trial.
 
Quote:Most law enforcement officers I know would hate to accuse the wrong guy

Oh, it's not them doing the accusing, it's built right into the system. Being it was a badly decomposed set of remains, it's obvious it happened a while back. Now it's all down to forensics to "solve" the crime by getting a dental and DNA ID and any evidence that remains.
Hopefully they do a good job and solve it, assuming it involves foul play. Somehow I doubt finding bodies in the Arizona desert nowadays is all that uncommon. They would find a whole lot more on the other side of the border, if they looked.

I wasn't saying the cops are going to try and frame anybody.
crazy.gif
 
EL,,Not trying to be argumentative, but having been on the investigative side for several years, there is a big difference between a "Prime Suspect", a "Person of Interest", and a "Material Witness".
Quote:the body was still warm and the medical examiner deduced he had died of a heart attack. Until then, my friend was the prime suspect and they told him to remain at home until they contacted him.

Having arrived on the scene of a body that "was still warm" would raise some immediate questions of the proximity of the person reporting and the victim...whereas the finding of a decomposed skull/skeleton, would introduce a length of time regarding the cause/time of death and the proximity of the person reporting..

While there are many factors that can be entered into the equation, every fact changes the effect of the investigation and it's nature..But the old "Who, What, Where, When, Why, & How" have to be answered as fully as possible...
 
Quote:EL,,Not trying to be argumentative, but having been on the investigative side for several years, there is a big difference between a "Prime Suspect", a "Person of Interest", and a "Material Witness".


Well, if I'm ever involved in something like that, I hope it's somebody like you doing the investigation and not a rookie hoping to solve his first big investigation. I've run across abandon cars, tents and sleeping bags with lumps in them while hunting, and I don't walk up and start doing any snooping.

That's a pretty cold attitude, I know, but I don't need the problems (possibly) involved.

"Person of interest" doesn't sound all that pleasant, personally.

I don't consider what you're saying "argumentative", you know a lot more about the subject than I ever will. I'm just saying I'd be a little concerned if I was involved.
frown.gif
 
To those of you who have said that you would not at least contact the authorities, I would like to remind you that there are literally thousands of people that are waiting for some news of their loved ones even if it is word that they are gone. After so many years I think that it is safe to say that most of those people know in their hearts that their loved ones are dead,but there is always a little bit of doubt lingering in the back of your mind. Please give closure to their families. Even if you take GPS coordinates and call from a pay phone a week later, show a little compassion to the people who care. Some day it could be your wife or son or daughter. Sorry you kind of touched a nerve. End of rant.
 
If I find actual remains, I'll contact someone. I'm just not going snooping for them.
I understand your stance on it.
Hopefully, I don't ever have that experience, it wouldn't be the high point of my life.
 
I think that quite a few of the illegals end up like every year. I've heard numbers before but I can't recall how many, maybe some of you AZ guys know. My first guess would be that rather than a crime. I'm sure the police have to handle it like a homicide until they can if ever rule that out. A lot of possibilities to consider.

The only illegals I've ever seen down there were either running down a wash or spread-eagled. I'd just as soon keep it that way.
 
Last edited:
Toss there bones over the fence and let Ole Mayheko figure it out. A buddy at work has a friend that just lost his father because two frickin illegals robbed his liquor store last week and shot him to death, luckily he shot one and they caught them at the hospital. Wont matter because he's dead. I wouldn't doubt if they came here from that path. And before anyone replies "What if it were your family member?" America wake up!
mad.gif
 
The photograph posted earlier by WYOAZshotgunner is very familiar to anyone hunting south of Casa Grande. Not uncommon to find spots just like that several times a day. We only catch a tiny percentage of those coming through. I would hazard a guess that if you could get permission to traipse around the Rez in that area, you would find a higher number of spots. Its common to run into border patrol also. Not a pleasant area to be in alone. I rarely go into those areas alone anymore.And anytime I do go, whether alone or not, I have the AR locked and loaded with a 40 round mag, as well as a 40 round backup. Within easy reach is also my xd 40, locked and loaded. Below is an interesting article regarding desert deaths.

Tucson Region
6 more bodies found in desert; fiscal-year total: 164
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.30.2009

The searing summer heat in Arizona's desert is taking its toll on illegal border crossers — the same as it has done every year since the start of the decade.
Officials have recovered the bodies of six illegal border crossers since Monday along Arizona's stretch of U.S.-Mexico border, bringing the fiscal-year-to-date total to 164, figures from the Pima and Cochise County medical examiner's records show.
These two medical examiners handle all bodies of suspected illegal immigrants recovered on the border from New Mexico to Yuma County.
With temperatures reaching 107 degrees on Monday and Tuesday in Southern Arizona, it's not surprising that more bodies have turned up. Most of the illegal border crossers found dead in Arizona die from hyperthermia or dehydration. And July is historically the worst month for body recoveries.
The 2009 fiscal-year-to-date total is on pace to match previous-year totals, which have exceeded at least 180 every year since 2004 and at least 130 every year since 2002.
Three of the six bodies this week were discovered on the Tohono O'odham Nation, and two were on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The sixth was found near Naco in Cochise County.
The search for the two bodies in Organ Pipe began Tuesday afternoon when U.S. Border Patrol agents caught an illegal immigrant on Arizona 85 who told them that he spotted two bodies during his trek, said Mario Escalante, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Organ Pipe is in Southwestern Arizona flanking the border town of Lukeville.
The agents called Borstar, the agency's search, trauma and rescue team, which launched a search. Borstar found one body on Tuesday afternoon at 5:40 p.m. and the other early Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. Both bodies were found west of Arizona 85 within five miles of the monument's northern boundary, said Lee Baiza, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument superintendent.
It was unknown if they were men or women because both bodies were in advanced stages of decomposition, he said.
Baiza said it's been very hot and dry on the monument this week, with temperatures reaching 110 degrees or higher on both Monday and Tuesday.
The three bodies recovered on Tohono O'odham land were discovered in three distinct areas, with two found on Tuesday and one on Wednesday, said Tohono O'odham police Sgt. Vincent Garcia.
The body of a Salvadoran woman who was about 30 years old was found on Tuesday about four miles north of the international border and 10 miles east of Papago Farms, on the western side of the reservation, Garcia said.
A woman who flagged down Border Patrol agents alerted authorities to the body of her relative.
Also on Tuesday, Border Patrol agents came across decomposing remains on the northern part of the reservation near the village of Jackrabbit, about 20 miles southwest of Casa Grande.
On Wednesday morning west of Sells, at Milepost 106 on Arizona 86, Tohono O'odham police came upon a group of illegal immigrants who were carrying the body of a woman in her early 20s, Garcia said. The woman had died that morning.
The sixth body found this week was recovered on Monday evening near Naco in Cochise County, Escalante said. Border Patrol agents caught a woman in that area who told them that her sister had died near the border. Agents found the woman's body west of Naco.
The 35 known border deaths recorded in July by the Pima and Cochise County medical examiners puts the fiscal-year-to-date total at 164, which is more than the 153 bodies that were found at this time last year but less than the 193 found through the date in fiscal year 2007, records show. The 2007 year-end total of 228 nearly matched the record set in 2005 of 230 bodies.
Border Patrol figures show that border deaths in the agency's Tucson Sector spiked to 74 in 2000 and to 134 in 2002. The totals have not decreased to pre-2000 levels since.
The Border Patrol releases border death totals only at the end of each month, making it difficult to gauge the agency's year-to-date total.
The latest figures available, for Oct. 1-June 30, show that agents in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector had recovered the bodies of 124 illegal immigrants, compared with 118 during the same period last year.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/302933
 
Blasta,

Is there a law restricting magazine capacity while hunting predators in AZ?

I am curious because AZ may be my retirement stop...
 
Originally Posted By: ozzyToss there bones over the fence and let Ole Mayheko figure it out. A buddy at work has a friend that just lost his father because two frickin illegals robbed his liquor store last week and shot him to death, luckily he shot one and they caught them at the hospital. Wont matter because he's dead. I wouldn't doubt if they came here from that path. And before anyone replies "What if it were your family member?" America wake up!
mad.gif

I agree it is very likely the skull remains may belong to an illegal who died crossing the desert.

The problem is that we don't know for sure, and the skull COULD belong to the victim of a serial killer.

It is best to let law enforcement sort it out.
 
it would sound better if it were 124 a day! I have no sympathy for the illegals just as I have none for any other criminal. they get what they deserve.
 
Thanks for posting that azmastablasta, it was an interesting read.

We were within a mile or two of the Tohono O'odham land that was mentioned in the article you posted.
 
4949, as posted above, Az law allows only 5 round mags while predator hunting. However, the 40 round mags are perfectly legal when preparing for encounters with 2 legged predators. Not really an issue in getting the two mixed up on a stand. The 40's stay in the truck when I get out to call. Crazy law though. No season, no limit, but only 5 rounds, go figure.
 
Back
Top