Human skull found in a Virginia field 32 years ago has just been identified, cops say

In 1990, human remains were found in a northern Virginia field — and they went unidentified for decades.

Now, roughly 32 years later, officials have determined the remains belonged to a person named Timothy Mangum, who died in 1983 or 1984, the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Friday, Feb. 18. But the circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.

On Sept. 28, 1990, a man was working on his property when he found a human skull tucked under a fence line, the sheriff’s office said. Deputies responded and determined the skull, which showed no signs of trauma, had been there for “an extended period of time.”

Deputies searched the area, but no other remains were found.

The skull was taken to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and to anthropology experts in Washington, D.C., the sheriff’s office said.

“They concluded the skull appeared to be of an adolescent Caucasian male, between the ages of 15-18 years old and placed a reasonable estimate of time between death and its discovery between 1 to 3 years,” the sheriff’s office said.

The medical examiner, however, could not determine a manner of death and ruled the cause “undetermined,” according to the sheriff’s office. But, given the victim’s estimated age and where the skull was found, a “violent or unnatural manner of death” was “strongly suspected.”

More than two decades later, in 2011, DNA testing revealed a DNA profile for the victim, the sheriff’s office said. That profile was then uploaded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but no matches were found.

The mystery continued for another decade until November 2021, when genealogical researchers at a laboratory in Texas provided the sheriff’s office with the possible names and addresses of the victim’s father and brother in the Norfolk area, the sheriff’s office said.

“It was at that time detectives were provided the name of Timothy Alan Mangum as a possible identity,” the sheriff’s office said. “The family had not had contact with Timothy Mangum for a number of years prior to 1990.”

Using DNA samples from his father and brother, officials positively identified the victim as Mangum.

Now, the sheriff’s office is trying to learn more about Mangum’s disappearance and death.

“At this time detectives believe that Timothy (Mangum) was last alive in 1983-1984, but not much more information is known about his disappearance or the circumstances surrounding his death,” the sheriff’s office said.

Officials said they’ve learned he was attending Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk in April 1983 after leaving the Chesapeake Public Schools system in January 1983. Norfolk is in southeastern Virginia, about 150 miles from Stafford County, where Mangum’s remains were found in 1990.

At one point, he was living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with his mother but later returned to Virginia and was attending Lake Taylor High School during his sophomore year, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators said they’re looking for anyone who had any contact with him or who can provide information on why he could have been in Stafford County at the time of his death.

“Anyone having any information concerning Timothy Alan Mangum and who might have known or attended school with him is asked to contact Detective Dave Wood, at the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, 540-658-4727, or email at dwood@staffordcountyva.gov,” the sheriff’s office said.

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