The Broward Medical Examiner said this afternoon that he believes a human skull brought into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Thursday had been used in some kind of Vodou ritual.

 

The skull is that of a black man who was in his 40's or younger, Dr. Joshua Perper said. It arrived in a cotton bag labeled for wild rice, carried by Myrlene Severe, aboard a Lynx Air International flight from Cap-Haitien, Haiti, according to Zachary Mann, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. An agency officer detected the unusual object in the woman's luggage during a routine security check, and was turned over to the medical examiner's office for further testing.

 

''We do see human body parts come in, but typically they're used for research purposes,'' Mann said.

 

Perper said it was the first skull he has seen in his 12 years in Broward County that had been used in Vodou.

 

Severe, of Miramar, was arrested and charged with smuggling a human head into the country, according to Miami Herald television news partner CBS-4. A federal magistrate set bond of $100,000. Court documents indicate that Severe obtained the package from a man in Haiti to ward off evil spirits, CBS-4 said.

 

A witness who appeared to know Severe told TV reporters that the woman had the skull because of her interest in science.

 

The investigation is being jointly handled by Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office.

 

Severe, 30, is being held in the Broward County Jail.

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/...ws/13839168.htm

 

:plain :plain :plain

I want an acrylic bowling ball with a human skull in it. Now THAT would be something...

There's definatly some interesting people in Broward County.