This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Thursday evening a hiker in the Angeles National Forest reported finding a human skull on a hillside near mile marker 19.36,according to the Daily Breeze. The area in which the remains were found "near Lucas Creek, a steep drainage that feeds Big Tujunga Canyon above the Big Tujunga Dam," and was part of the burn area from September's massive Station Fire.However, while the skull was located in the vicinity of where the blaze raged through the landscape, Los Angeles County Coroner's Investigator Jerry McKibben believes it was not a fatality that occurred as part of the fire. "Just from the condition of the skull, it sounds like it was skeletonized before the fire. It's definitely a skull, not attached to the body."
Authorities returned to the area to search for additional remains, and will need the assistance of "forensic archaeologists and doctors," explained Detective Peter Hecht of the sheriff's Homicide Bureau, to identify the remains and determine what happened.
