Skull has bullet wound, secrets

The skull appeared to have been placed in the sand hills by someone and parts of it had deteriorated due to exposure to the weather.Detective Sergeant Jonathan TierThere's a bullet wound to the head, signs of an autopsy and medical attention and a gold tooth - but police are stumped  over the mystery of a skull found on a Dargaville beach.
Dargaville police say the man whose skull was found  in sand dunes at Glinks Gully, on Dargaville's Ripiro Beach on November 17, likely died from a gunshot to the head, possibly from a .38 or 9mm weapon.
Detective Sergeant Jonathan Tier said the death could possibly have been as the result of suicide. But apart from some bare facts, police are stumped as to who the person was or how and why the skull ended up on the beach.
The macabre find was reported by Australian tourists after a particularly high tide washed away sand concealing it.
The skull, of a man of European descent aged between 30 and 50, had a gold filling and several other tooth repairs. No other bones were found and guitar strings and a guitar pick found at the same site are not thought to be related to the death.
The skull could be from somebody who died in the Kaipara, but police are not not ruling out the possibility it was brought into the area by an outsider.
"The skull appeared to have been placed in the sand hills by someone and parts of it had deteriorated due to exposure to the weather. There was no other human matter attached to or with the skull," said Mr Tier.
An examination by a pathologist revealed the skull had been subject to an autopsy  before it was placed in the sandhill and markings on the jawbone indicated it may have been used by someone in a medical area.
"This may be indicative of the skull originating from a historical coroner's case and / or a police investigation," said Mr Tier.
It could also have been used in a medical school or laboratory.
Police are mystified as to how the skull came to be in anyone's possession after this earlier course of events.
 Detectives are now keen to establish the identity of the dead man and would like to hear from anyone who has knowledge of anyone having been in possession of a skull. They would also like information regarding any known deaths of this nature in the  past 50 years.
Police will also be searching their own records in an effort to solve the mystery.
"We are keeping an open mind as to the motive for any person having possession of the skull and then disposing of it in the sand hills," said Mr Tier.
"The purpose of the police inquiry now is to establish the identity of the deceased person and return the skull to its rightful place," he said.
Out of respect for the dead man's family, police are not releasing a photograph of the skull.