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A scenario out of a slasher horror movie unfolds in Florida. Police in Gainesville are investigating a case of numerous preserved human tongues found in jars in a crawl space.
Police arrived at the home after a contractor discovered the tongues in over half a dozen plastic jars.
The investigation quickly found that this was not a new crime scene. Some of the jars dated back to the 1960s.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, the home belongs to the ex-wife of one Dr. Ronald A. Baughman, a pathologist and former professor at the University of Florida.
According to the ex-wife, the scene isn’t as nefarious as it might appear at first. The tongues are not trophies claimed from hapless victims.
Instead, they were meant for scientific research. The doctor used them in connection to his work, and stored them in the crawl space because it was a cool location where they would be well-preserved.
The alarming collection of human remains still struck investigators as troubling.
The homeowner explained that the tongues are used at the university for research into neck and thyroid conditions, offering valuable scientific information to students and researchers. Police chastised this, stating that scientific materials should have been stored at the university, not in the residence.
The homeowner told investigators that she had simply forgotten about the jars under the home when she called the contractor out. However, she isn’t off the hook just yet.
Dr. Baughman should be seeking lawyer advice soon, because charges could be pressed against him. While police have stated they don’t suspect foul play, Baughman could be in more trouble with the university than the police department.
“I don’t know what the policies and laws would have been like 50 years ago or whenever it was, but I can tell you that today that’s not something that would be permitted,” Steve Orlando, a University of Florida spokesperson, told local reporters.
“There are very strict federal and state laws as well as university policies that prohibit that. It would be neither appropriate or legal for a faculty member or researcher to bring something like that home.”
