May 2, 2007 11:23 pm US/Central
4 Human Skulls Discovered In Bucktown House
One Skull Was In Pot Of Boiling Water At Mannequin Dealer's Home
CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman, Rafael Romo, Rob Johnson and STNG Wire contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Mannequin dealer Brian Sloan told police he was planning on selling the human skulls on eBay.
CBS
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Artists JoJo Baby says a skull was sitting in a pot of boiling water when he entered Brian Sloan's Bucktown home.
CBS
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Human skulls were discovered in a Bucktown neighborhood mannequin dealer's home.
CBS
Human skulls were discovered in a Bucktown neighborhood mannequin dealer's home, and police want to know their source.
As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, the investigation was launched Tuesday night when a man called police and told them what he saw inside the home.
A police lieutenant said Wednesday morning that he had never seen a case quite like it.
A fashion designer looking to buy a department store mannequin visited the residence of a mannequin dealer at 2130 N. Damen Ave. about 11 p.m. on Tuesday. He found something much more macabre.
"I went inside, and there was a skull boiling in a pot on the stove with flesh still on it," said the fashion designer, JoJo Baby.
JoJo Baby said he called "an anthropologist friend of mine, and he said to call the police, because it's illegal to bring bones across international waters."
There were three other human skulls inside the apartment that belongs to sculptor Brian Sloan.
"And he was like "oh, no; it's cool. I get them from China and I bring them here and I do my sculpting work to them,'" Baby said.
Erring on the side of caution, JoJo Baby proceeded to call police. Area Five police are now investigating the discovery and trying to determine whether the skulls were acquired legally.
"He decides to leave and call police," police Shakespeare District Lt. Perry Nigro said. "Police got there and, sure enough, he had a couple of skulls on the front porch, one boiling and another one [inside]. They're all human."
A police report confirmed the confiscation of four or five human skulls.
Sloan did not answer knocks on his door Wednesday morning, but he told police they came from Beijing, China, and that he planned to sell them on eBay.
"This man says he purchased them in China," said Shakespeare District Lt. Michael Mulkerin of the Chicago Police Department. "What does he mean by that? Were they shipped here? Did he go there and get them and bring them here?"
The skulls were turned over to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. While no arrests had been made, an investigation is underway, police said.
"It's not common for your average Joe citizen to be acquiring human skulls and having them inside his residence, and apparently boiling the skull – for what purpose, at this point, we don't know," Mulkerin said.
"This is not the actions of somebody who's committing any major crimes..." Mulkerin said.
Sloan was not arrested and is said to be fully cooperating with police in the investigation. He also apparently told them that he wanted to sell the skulls on eBay.
CBS 2 went online and saw nine human skulls up for auction, including one currently going for $800 and another originating from Chicago. It is unclear if that is being sold by Sloan.
It is also unclear what eBay's policy is for selling such body parts online since nobody from their headquarters returned CBS 2's phone calls.
The state's attorney's office would not say Wednesday if any laws were broken.
The skulls are currently being reviewed at the medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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