Who Is It? Skull Find In Brick Leaves Many Unanswered Questions

BRICK, NJ -- A little over a week after a skull was found lying near a Brick Township road, information about the person it belonged to remains scarce.

Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, said the skull found lying in the area of Beaverson Boulevard and Old Toms River Road has been turned over to Donna Fontana, a forensic anthropologist with the New Jersey State Police, who is working to determine the gender and approximate age of the person.

The skull was found last Tuesday, March 22, not far from the road, just outside the wooded area that sits along the edge of Beaverson Boulevard as somewhat of a buffer between homes in Lake Riviera and the road, which has become a highly traveled stretch over the course of the last 30 years.

Law enforcement searched that wooded area and one nearby that lines Shorrock Street along the western edge of the development Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, and Della Fave said no other bones were found.

How the skull got to the location where it was found, as a result, remains a mystery.

Rumors, of course, abound. Readers commenting on the initial report raised the possibility that it was the remains of a homeless man who was believed to have been living in the area. Others joked that the skull was from a mob hit -- mafia killings are not unheard of in Brick; there was a well-known mob-style execution in 1980 in Lake Riviera where a reputed mobster was shot to death while sitting in his family room.

How long the skull may have been exposed to the elements is unclear as well.

One thing is certain: connecting it with a missing persons case likely will not be simple.

Information on the New Jersey State Police website's Missing Persons and Child Exploitation pages includes more than two dozen open missing persons cases. It also includes a list of information on the remains of people who were found but whose remains are unidentified, including eight cases in Ocean County.

It will likely take several weeks to determine the gender, as well as whether any DNA can be extracted to make a potential match to any missing person.

Anyone who has information regarding this investigation should call the Brick Township Police Department at 732-262-1143 or the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office at 732-929-2027.