In June, Paul and Karen Dupaix were having the roof on their nearly century-old Tooele home on 100 South rebuilt in preparation for putting it up for sale. As the construction crew hired to do the job pulled off shingles, a worker discovered a skull through the slats underneath.
“I pulled back the bottom layer of shingles and I saw what looked like the top of a head,” said Fausto Hernandes, the contractor who discovered the skull, in June. “I was really nervous as I started to peel off the other shingles, and then I saw the whole thing.”
The skull was discovered between the attic ceiling and storage cabinets that lined the wall of the attic. There were two layers of shingles covering where the skull was found, and the roof had been re-shingled by a previous owner.
Many speculated as to how the skull — which was missing its jaw bone but still had hair, teeth and skin attached — ended up in the home.
According to the Dupaixs, the home, which was built in 1910, had changed hands several times over the years.
“How can you describe something like that?” said Paul Dupaix when the skull was discovered. “I was shocked. That was in my attic. That was under my shingles.”
The Utah State Medical Examiner’s office released the skull to the State Archaeology Lab for further testing after coming to the conclusion that the individual’s death likely happened long before her resting place was constructed. The lab determined the skull was Native American, female and was likely more than 100 years old.
The skull was then sent to a Florida lab to determine its age, where radio carbon dating revealed it indeed belonged to an American Indian female who died in her early 20s and lived between 1620 and 1800.
But questions still remain as to where the skull came from and how it ended up in the Dupaixs’ attic. And according to Assistant State Archaeologist Ron Rood, those questions may never be answered. Rood helped prepare a report on the skull, which has been submitted to the Utah Division of Indian Affairs.
“They’ll send that out to tribes and they’ll have the opportunity to claim it for reburial,” he said.
If no claims are made — and currently none have been — the skull will be taken to a designated burial facility owned and operated by the state for Native American remains.
Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com
Post a Comment
