THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TIPTON, Ind. - Richards' Auction Gallery in Tipton, Ind., had a macabre item up for sale this week, and just in time for Halloween: A real human skeleton. The bones, wired together to keep them in place, were sold for $500 Tuesday.
Auctioneer Tim Richards found the skeleton among furniture and boxed items he collected for the auction. The bones had apparently been someone's macabre decoration.
Richards says the find was examined by University of Indianapolis forensic anthropologist Andrea Simmons.
Simmons concluded the skeleton was that of a European man between 5- foot-3 and 5-foot-5 who died sometime before the First World War and was not murdered.
Jane Harper, the winning bidder, donated it to the forensics laboratory at the University of Indianapolis.
"I just felt very strongly this person needed to be in a final resting place," Harper said.
