SOUTH BAY : Skull in Trash Can Was Stolen From 1928 Crypt
A human skull found in a trash can in Lennox on June 2 was that of a woman entombed at Inglewood Park Cemetery in 1928.
Inglewood police said the skull apparently was stolen by thieves who broke into a 10-foot-square family crypt, smashed the marble slab that covered the woman’s coffin and took the skull and neck bones. Inglewood Police Capt. Jack Frazier said cemetery officials are going through records to try to determine who the woman was. The crypt, which contained six other sets of remains, bore only the family name of Richards.
Frazier said cemetery officials discovered the break-in the day after the skull was found and notified police. How the skull wound up in the trash can in Lennox is not known, Frazier said. No arrests have been made.
“I have no idea why anyone would want to do this,” Frazier said. He added that a ring on the woman’s finger and other jewelry in the coffin were not taken in the grave robbery.
On Friday a county coroner’s office pathologist took the skull to the cemetery and matched it to the body of the long-dead woman. The skull was placed back in the coffin.
Cemetery officials declined comment.
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