Boater Finds Human Head Floating In The Water

[bloodrayne]

Boater Finds Human Head

A startled boater came across a human head floating in the ocean a few miles off Islamorada. The Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office will examine it.

Key West - A lazy Sunday afternoon turned horrific for at least one boater, who spotted a human head bobbing in the ocean a few miles off Islamorada.

Part of the person's spine was still attached, some teeth remained, but there was no hair and not much, if any, flesh, according to Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

''A boater off of Alligator Reef off of Islamorada saw something in the water that looked suspicious, motored a little closer and saw that it was a head,'' Herrin said.

Herrin did not know the dead person's gender.

A popular snorkel and dive spot located about four miles east of Indian Key, Alligator Reef is marked by a 136-foot iron light tower.

Though she said body parts -- and bodies -- have previously washed up in and around the Keys, Herrin could not recall an instance in which a head had surfaced.

''It's certainly an unusual thing to happen on a Sunday afternoon to a boater offshore,'' Herrin said.

The head was turned over to a deputy with the sheriff's marine unit who was in the process of handing it over to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's office late Sunday.

The medical examiner will examine it closely to find details that might lead to its identity and determine how it became separated from the body.

Herrin said the head didn't initially seem to correlate with any missing-persons reports.

''We don't have any missing boaters or divers or people that we are aware of, so we don't know who it could be,'' she said.

"There is also the possibility it could be a Cuban migrant.''

In recent months, there have been several instances in which Cuban migrants are thought to have perished in the waters off the Florida Keys.