Dive Brief:

• Employees discovered two human skulls in a box at a county recycling center in Brooks, Ore.

• The box was traced back to a man, who received the skulls from his father upon his death in 1991. The son passed away recently, and the boxes were discarded.

• According to family members, it is suspected that they were initially obtained decades ago, while the man was in the Philippines searching for gold.

Dive Insight:

According to Sergeant Chris Baldridge, a Marion County sheriff's officer, the family was aware of the skulls but remain uncertain as to why Frank Shriver had them. They will be studied by a forensic anthropologist in Portland, Ore., then cremated or held in storage at the state medical examiner's office.