Longview Police Seize Skull Authorities Trying To Determine Whether It Is Linked To A Crime

Richard Kauffman says he “respected” that skull.

But that didn’t stop police from taking it.

Kauffman traded his stereo, worth about $75, for the skull about 20 years ago.

He kept the skull until earlier this month, when his estranged wife turned it over to Longview police.

Now it sits in the Police Department’s evidence room.

Police seized the skull so authorities could investigate whether it might be connected to a murder and whether it could be legally returned to Kauffman.

But because the skull offers no information about how the person died, a deputy prosecutor has been assigned just to look into the second question.

John Lundy, a forensic anthropologist for the Oregon State Police, has identified the skull as probably belonging to “a pretty normal guy” of American Indian or Eskimo ancestry who died during middle age. Lundy said the skull offers no indication of how death occurred.

Kauffman said he got the skull from a friend who claimed it was 3,000 years old, but Lundy said it’s unlikely the skull is very old.

“A couple hundred years old, maybe,” he said.

If Kauffman gets the skull back, he plans on “returning it back to the earth somehow.”