SANTA CRUZ — After a passerby’s report alerted police to a “suspicious situation” Thursday, police were investigating the discovery of what they initially thought might be human remains left on an Ocean Street sidewalk.
According to an update from the Santa Cruz Police Department late Thursday afternoon, the remains were later determined not human, after an assessment by the Santa Cruz County Coroner’s Office.
Officers were alerted by a 10:21 a.m. 911 caller who believed she had seen “a human heart in a bag full of blood and possibly other body parts” on the 1400 block of Ocean Street, as broadcast over police radio communications.
The Coroner’s Office was called to the scene to collect the remains for further examination, according to a post to the Santa Cruz Police Department’s social media. According to police, the medical examiner would make the final call on whether the remains were animal or human.
“At this time, the remains are unidentified, and the investigation is still developing,” department officials wrote.
Calls to police officials earlier Thursday were not immediately returned.
Join the Conversation
We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.