Woman carrying human skull on stick leads cops to body

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - It sounds like a Halloween prank but Sacramento police say it was all too real.

Authorities say a homeless woman led them to a decomposed body after she was seen walking down the street with a human skull on a stick.

The woman was spotted Wednesday on Connie Drive, reported FOX 5 San Diego.

Police stopped her at an abandoned house.

Sgt. Bryce Heinlein says the woman told them she had found the skull and led them to an abandoned homeless camp a couple blocks away. That's where officers found the rest of a decomposing body.

"A call like this is not something that happens every day. We hope we can get down to the bottom of what caused this person to become deceased," Heinlein told FOX 5 San Diego. “She brought the officers to the area where she located the skull."

A man living in a nearby house told reporters he had noticed a terrible stench coming from the encampment.

“I went to walk back there and thought, Damn! What the hell is that smell? It make me sick to my stomach, so I turned ... and came back here,” he said.

The coroner will determine the identity of the remains and the cause of death.

With the Associated Press