NH NH - Seabrook, Skull, UnkRace, UP98321, 7-9 y.o., died 1984-1992, Seabrook Jane Doe, skull purchased in New York, Jun’94

[djanga]

In June of 1994, police in Seabrook, New Hampshire, seized a human skull from a private business. The owners claimed to have received the skull as a gift from someone who had purchased it in New York. Based on the patina on the surface of the skull, a forensic anthropologist concluded that it had been outdoors for an extended period of time and had then been cleaned.

The skull belonged to a girl estimated to be between 7-9 years old. The child is believed to have died 2-10 years prior. A cause of death could not be determined. In addition to DNA testing with the DNA Doe Project, testing is currently underway on a dental sample to determine where the child may have lived during his or her life.

This case is in partnership with the New Hampshire State Police and the Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery Lab (F.A.I.R. Lab) at UNH.

NamUs ID:

UP98321

Date Body Found:

June 15, 1994

Race:

undetermined

Sex: Female

Estimated Age: 7-9 years

Estimated PMI: 2-10 years

Agency of Jurisdiction:

NH State Police
Detective Christopher Elphick
(603) 223-3856
christopher.elphick@dos.nh.gov

More Information:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Little Lost Seabrook Doe - DNA Doe Project Cases

Description: In June of 1994, police in Seabrook, New Hampshire, seized a human skull from a private business. The owners claimed to have received the skull as a gift from someone who had purchased it in New York. Based on the patina on the surface of the skull, a forensic anthropologist...

dnadoeproject.org

 

[djanga]

Fron Unidentified wiki

Seabrook Jane Doe was a young girl whose skull was allegedly first purchased in New York in 1994 before being handed over to New Hampshire authorities. Examination showed she had decent dental care and good nutrition, and died between 1984 and 1992. It is unclear if the skull was stolen from a grave or obtained from an unnatural death.

https:///wiki/Seabrook_Jane_Doe

 

[Triss]

The owners claimed to have received the skull as a gift from someone who had purchased it in New York

HUH???
Okay, this has to be one of the weirdest cases I've ever heard of.

 

[djanga]

“In addition to DNA testing with the DNA Doe Project, testing is currently underway on a dental sample to determine where the child may have lived during his or her life.”
I am wondering if the child was not from the U.S. but arrived to the United States by sea. A very weird story, there are so many possibilities.

 

[evilwise]

As @Laughing was shocked to hear, this is something that I encountered in the 90s and back then it wasn't considered exceptionally shocking. I had always assumed that the skull I saw at an acquaintance's house had been stolen from a med school or something but since I was a bit surprised that an old human skull turning up is now a national news story I did a bit more research and discovered that it is also common in some cultures to unearth human remains from cemeteries for spiritual purposes so I have come to suspect that could have been where that one, this one and others originated. Two years would be awfully fast for it to make its way into a curio shop or something but ten years wouldn't.

 

[John/Jane Doe]

I wonder if this skull could belong to this missing girl:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

She disappeared in New York in 1987 along with her 2 sisters, they were kidnapped by their father without custody.

 

[Captain Beck]

If we assume ”been outdoors” to mean outside exposed to the elements and not being buried, this is rather sinister. This could be a homicide victim.
ETA: The Namus entry says It is possible that the skull was stolen from a casketed burial or obtained from an unnatural death where the individual’s body had been exposed outdoors for a number of months. If it was stolen from a casketed burial, would embalming leave traces or residue on a skull?

If I were investigating this, I’d really want to find and talk to the person who originally found it and apparently sold it to a shop instead of turning it in or reporting it. I have a lot of questions…

(I don’t understand how someone can find human remains and not report them.)

 

[victoriarobinson642]

I wonder where in New York they obtained the skull.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

I’m sorry…. WHAT?! Purchased a little girl’s skull? Weird and crazy! Given as a gift?! Poor girl. That’s sad that her skull’s been handed out like candy to someone. Hoping someone comes forward.

 

[djanga]

Actually the DDP announced another similar case also with the same law enforcement in New Hampshire, I am surprised so many people keep human skulls as souvenirs! I remember there was at least one more case like this in Illinois, when somebody found a skull and decided to use it as a Halloween decoration, later this Illinois case was solved, the second New Hampshire case:

NH - NH - Concord, Fem Skull, 13-18, UP103482, discovered prior to 1942 in pond, kept at home as souvenir, turned over to police, May 2023

Description: In 2019, a woman turned over a human cranium to the New Hampshire State Police. She reported that her late husband had discovered the partial skull in the 1930s and had kept it his entire life. The partial skull is believed to be from a young woman between 15-18 years old. Bomb...

www.websleuths.com

 

[EmiliaRT007]

Actually the DDP announced another similar case also with the same law enforcement in New Hampshire, I am surprised so many people keep human skulls as souvenirs! I remember there was at least one more case like this in Illinois, when somebody found a skull and decided to use it as a Halloween decoration, later this Illinois case was solved, the second New Hampshire case:

NH - NH - Concord, Fem Skull, 13-18, UP103482, discovered prior to 1942 in pond, kept at home as souvenir, turned over to police, May 2023

Description: In 2019, a woman turned over a human cranium to the New Hampshire State Police. She reported that her late husband had discovered the partial skull in the 1930s and had kept it his entire life. The partial skull is believed to be from a young woman between 15-18 years old. Bomb...

www.websleuths.com

I find it odd that both cases are female skulls. Also that is so twisted, selling skulls.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

Y’all just to add onto this. In I believe 47 out of the 50 states it’s legal to sell and buy human bones. Search up real human skull for sale and you’ll find an array of skulls from fetuses, babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults, and super old people! It’s nasty!

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Y’all just to add onto this. In I believe 47 out of the 50 states it’s legal to sell and buy human bones. Search up real human skull for sale and you’ll find an array of skulls from fetuses, babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults, and super old people! It’s nasty!

I had a college course once with a man who sold human remains. It was...awkward, to say the least, but he made it sound like there was a market for that sort of thing.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

HUH???
Okay, this has to be one of the weirdest cases I've ever heard of.

Exactly! Who buys a skull, and who thinks it would make a great gift!? Further, who receives that gift and displays it in their business?

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Y’all just to add onto this. In I believe 47 out of the 50 states it’s legal to sell and buy human bones. Search up real human skull for sale and you’ll find an array of skulls from fetuses, babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults, and super old people! It’s nasty!

Aren't they available only for research purposes, say for use in a lab, etc.?

 

[EmiliaRT007]

I had a college course once with a man who sold human remains. It was...awkward, to say the least, but he made it sound like there was a market for that sort of thing.

Oh yeah there is. But they are also purchased for educational purposes. We have a whole bunch of skulls and other parts in my forensics class (high school, not college). Some of them are real and some of them are replicas. We use them for reconstruction purposes. Gather as much as we can from the bones. All of the real bones are from people who donated their bodies to science.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

Aren't they available only for research purposes, say for use in a lab, etc.?

I would think so. You can get them though at oddities shops too. Who knows what happened to the poor souls that were these skeletons for sale. My high school forensics lab has skeletons galore for reconstruction and gathering as much information from them as we can, finding wounds for possible COD, etc. My uncle has a human skull in his dentist’s office where he works. It was my great grandmother. She had perfect dentition so he has her skull as an example.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

Exactly! Who buys a skull, and who thinks it would make a great gift!? Further, who receives that gift and displays it in their business?

As I said my uncle has my great grandma’s skull on his desk at his office when people go in for consultation (he’s a dentist). Don’t worry, she said he could take it before she died. The rest of her was cremated and scattered in the sea near where she grew up as per her wishes. I miss her dearly.

As for BUYING a skull, oh ho no, that’s some horror movie type stuff. Imagine being the parents of this little girl. All of a sudden your 8 year old daughter disappears out of nowhere. She just sits there, exposed to the elements. Or perhaps she had a medical condition and was dying from it? All that remains is her skeleton. Someone takes her skull and gives it to someone. Oh my goodness, I’m just crying thinking about that. Her parents must be so worried. Gosh, that’s tragic.

 

[MarziPanda]

Sadly I think it happens quite often (especially in the past) that people will donate their bodies to science and won't understand that that means the people who get the body can do what they like with it for the most part. Including selling the body parts as oddities, or selling to other places who then sell them on as oddities. I think most of the people who end up with their skulls on display in some guy's basement probably didn't want that.

I know they said that she died not that long before the skull was found (likely less than a decade) but they've been wrong before about PMIs, and estimated ages. There are a number of girls missing from New York 1980-1992. The thread title says white female but both the NAMUS and the DDP page say the race was unknown, as far as I can see? Am I missing it somewhere that they've said she was white? Most of the missing girls I'm finding aren't white, such as Equilla Hodrick or Tiahease Jackson. If you go just a few years back from the PMI there's also Holly Ann Hughes. Andre Rand (also suspected in Tiahease's disappearance and others) was convicted of her kidnapping but her body has never been found, nor have the bodies of any of the other people he is suspected of taking, bar one.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

Sadly I think it happens quite often (especially in the past) that people will donate their bodies to science and won't understand that that means the people who get the body can do what they like with it for the most part. Including selling the body parts as oddities, or selling to other places who then sell them on as oddities. I think most of the people who end up with their skulls on display in some guy's basement probably didn't want that.

I know they said that she died not that long before the skull was found (likely less than a decade) but they've been wrong before about PMIs, and estimated ages. There are a number of girls missing from New York 1980-1992. The thread title says white female but both the NAMUS and the DDP page say the race was unknown, as far as I can see? Am I missing it somewhere that they've said she was white? Most of the missing girls I'm finding aren't white, such as Equilla Hodrick or Tiahease Jackson. If you go just a few years back from the PMI there's also Holly Ann Hughes. Andre Rand (also suspected in Tiahease's disappearance and others) was convicted of her kidnapping but her body has never been found, nor have the bodies of any of the other people he is suspected of taking, bar one.

Wondering if this Rand guy is in any way connected with this little girl. I’ve seen Tiahease suggested for quite a few child Jane Does found during this time. She’s 10 and this girl was 7-9. Not too far off to be a rule out IMO. Possibly a case of the late bloomer. Heck, when I was 10, I was 4’1” and about 55 pounds! I was in the 6th percentile IIRC for height. I was a late bloomer. Even now I’m 5’2”, 110 pounds, and look like I’m fresh out of 5th grade. I’m in high school. I didn’t get my first period until I was 14. Just like I had suggested for St. Louis Jane Doe 1983. She was really tall for an 8-11 year old girl. Her estimated height was 4’10”-5’6” and estimated weight was 80 lbs but she appeared well cared for. Possibly a late bloomer, like 10-14 still growing.
If most sources say the race is unknown I’m fine with suggesting girls of any race. I would submit Tiahease as age isn’t too far off. Could be Holly as well. Heck it could be any of them. They didn’t say how big the skull was. If it was a bit bigger maybe it could give a clue to how big the girl was in life. Was she short and stout or tall and slender? We don’t know. Such a weird case.