Human Skull Found In Halloween Section Of FL Thrift Store: Sheriff

NORTH FORT MYERS, FL — A shopper looking for deals on spooky decor was surprised to find a real human skull in the Halloween section of a North Fort Myers thrift store.

The shopper, who happens to be an anthropologist, found the skull Saturday among Halloween decorations on sale at the store and recognized it to be human, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.

Detectives with the agency’s Major Crimes Unit responded to the store on North Cleveland Avenue and recovered the skull.

The store’s owner told investigators that the skull was found in a storage unit that they purchased years earlier, the sheriff’s office said.

Beth Meyer, a managing partner of the shop, Paradise Vintage Market, told the Washington Post that she and her business partner bought the storage unit in September 2022, thinking she was buying rocks, which the store specializes in.

“There was just a lot of weird stuff and books but no rocks,” she said. “I was disappointed.”

While moving the store in April, Meyer found the skull while sorting through boxes and knew immediately that it was real, reports said. She put it on display in the store for Halloween, setting the price at $4,000.

“I put such a high price on it that I figured no one would buy it,” she said.

Under state law, it’s a first-degree misdemeanor to sell human remains.

LCSO is working with the District 21 Medical Examiner’s Office on testing of the skull, though deputies noted that "this case is not suspicious in nature.”