A human skull was found Thursday night in the dense swamp grounds on the east end of Nantucket — and foul play is not being ruled out.
An “intact skull and many bones,” were found near a river in Tom Nevers by two men searching for deer antlers, the Nantucket Current reported.
“I kept questioning myself about what I was looking at,” Peter McHugh, a Connecticut resident who has a home on the Massachusetts island, told the outlet.
He was on the hunt for the deer antlers, or “sheds,” that bucks drop before growing bigger ones, which people sometimes collect, sell or use to make furniture or art.
“It was surreal,” McHugh said. He initially thought it was an animal corpse, he said. The remains had somehow been overlooked by hunters, he added, despite several elevated deer watch stations in the area.
The Nantucket Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police are investigating and the identity and cause of death are not yet known, according to officials.
“It’s an open case, and all of those things are not ruled out, including foul play,” Nantucket Police Department Lt. Angus MacVicar told the Current.
“We’re looking into anything and everything,” he said. “I’m reasonably confident that we’ll be able to identify the human remains that were recovered.”
But MacVicar said he has “no idea when that will be.”