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Police: Human Remains Found In Yuba City Likely Tied To Religious Tradition

YUBA CITY (CBS13) — Yuba City authorities aren't concerned about a human skull found in the backyard of a home this week.

The bones and some other artifacts were found a few days ago at a home off of Nadean Drive.

The people who live at the home just moved in, but if it wasn't for their dog, they wouldn't have found the remains buried in their backyard.

The Yuba City backyard was turned into a graveyard after Nathaniel Oberman's husky named Sky dug up a ceramic pot with a human skull inside.

"She was digging at this for like three weeks," he said. "She wouldn't leave this spot be."

Oberman and his roommates moved into the home about three weeks ago. First Sky found the head of a doll, and what appeared to be the porcelain doll sitting in a chair. So he kept digging.

"There was machetes wrapped up in it, some other stuff like coyote skulls stuff like that," he said. "There were some coins in it as the pot broke apart you could actually see the skull at the bottom."

Oberman says that discovery made him call police, but even officers were baffled. Anthropologists from Chico State were called in to help. They believe the artifacts may have been part of an Afro-Caribbean religious tradition.

But the big questions like why was it in the yard, who left it and whose remains are in the pot may never be answered as the religion itself is very secretive.

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