Human skull found in field near Edinburg

NEAR EDINBURG -- Detectives continue to survey the area around where a farm worker discovered a human skull buried in a field near Edinburg on Thursday.

Hidalgo County Sheriff's deputies found out about the discovery in a field near 12 Mile Line and Wallace Road, said Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

"It was stripped clean of tissue," he said, adding that many of the skull's teeth remain intact.

The skull was taken to a pathologist Friday morning to conduct a medical examination to try and identify the person, as well as learn how long the remains had been buried. But pathologists cannot determine a person's gender from examining the skull alone, Treviño said.

The exam may reveal how the person died and whether there was any foul play, as well. 

 "We're going to look at this as a homicide until it can be proven otherwise," Treviño said. "But we're not going to tally this event as the first homicide of 2009 because we don't know" how the person died.