Mystery of the Sutro Bath skulls

by Alastair Bland

On Saturday, Nov. 19, two human skulls were discovered at the ruins of Sutro Baths. The U.S. Park Police recovered the remains and passed them along to San Francisco's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The subsequent examination revealed that the remains are of historical nature, but their exact origin and the circumstances of their recent abandonment at the ruins remain unknown.

A visitor to the Sutro Baths ruins discovered the skulls in the early afternoon. They had been placed in a plastic bag and deposited amid a pile of other trash at the base of the steep bluffs which lead up to the Cliff House restaurant. The visitor called the SF Police Department (SFPD), but since the case involved federal land, the SFPD turned the matter over to the U.S. Park Police Department.

An officer retrieved the skulls and delivered them to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Amy Hart. Hart said Charles Cecil, the anthropologist at the Chief Medical Examiner's office, examined the two skulls, and he does not believe they are a product of foul play.

In studying the skulls, however, Cecil discovered a mark apparently produced by a blade. Hart says that the cut is consistent with those produced by medical autopsies, but she says the exact nature of the mark will likely remain unclear.

Cecil concluded that both skulls are from adults, and while of historical, or non-modern, nature, they are not believed to be the remains of Native Americans. The sex of the two people whose skulls were found could not be established.

"There's a complicated formula we can use to determine the sex," said Hart, "but even then it only gives a percent chance that it's male or female, or some kind of ethnic mix."

According to Hart, the formula involves taking a series of extremely precise skull measurements using calipers and then entering the data into a computer database. The process takes some time and effort and only provides in varying probabilities.

Hart says, considering the age of the skulls and their insignificance concerning current missing person cases, there is little to be gained from running a test on them. Hart speculates that the remains may have originated from the days of the California Gold Rush.

"In San Francisco, there's no place to bury a body today," Hart said, "but in the pioneer and Gold Rush days there were burial sites in the City."

She says San Francisco construction crews occasionally encounter such remains. Standard procedure in such a case is for the Office of the Medical Examiner to determine first if the remains are human and, second, if they are of modern or historical significance. If the remains are modern, a homicide investigation may commence.

If the remains originate from a historical period, procedures may be taken to determine whether or not the remains are of a Native American. If this proves to be the case, the Native American community takes possession of them to conduct a traditional disposal.

According to Hart, the abandonment of the skulls represents an infringement of the law.

"It was an illegal and improper way to dispose of the skulls," she said, but added that any charges for such an act would have been minor. The skulls, she explained, were clean of flesh or infectious tissue and represented no health threat - just an unpleasant encounter for a beachgoer. The proper course of action, Hart said, would have been to call the Chief Medical Examiner's office at 553-1694.

Hart says that although few conclusions in the Sutro Baths case have been drawn, without additional bone fragments or information to work with, the investigation will cease.

"The case is closed at this point," she said.

The skulls will be sent to a crematory in the East Bay, reduced to ashes and deposited at sea.

"In a seafaring town, scattering remains at sea seems to be an acceptable and appropriate way to dispose of remains," Hart said.