Matthew Dickens and his friends were in the canal near their homes in Hollywood Saturday when they pulled out a shopping cart. As they took a closer look they found something that could be in a horror movie—what the medical examiner has confirmed is a human skull.
“I was scared. That was my very first time seeing a skull up close like that—a real skull,” Dickens said. “I didn’t know what to do. I just put it on the shore and i walked away.”
Dickens’ mother, Brandy Fischer, said the although disturbing the discovery didn’t seem to scar her son.
“Maybe it’s all the horror movies I let him watch but he was fine with it,” she said.
Still, the idea of a dead body in a nearby canal made her think twice about where her son was spending his free time.
“I’ve lived in this neighborhood my whole life. All the garbage, cars and dead horses that have been pulled out of the lake. I don’t want him in the water,” Fischer said.
Police divers spent Monday in the canal looking for any other body parts and evidence. They did pull out a safe and a microwave oven.
Police are working with medical examiners to try and determine the age, gender and race of the person whose skull was found.
“It appears it’s been in there for quite a while just because it was pretty murky,” said Lieutenant Diana Pereira, of the Hollywood Police Department.
Once the age and gender of the victim is known, detectives will start going through missing person reports looking for a match.
Police wouldn’t say how long it would take for the identification to take place.
Dickens said he thinks the skull belonged to a child because of its size.
Police want to hear from anyone with information.
