Girl discovers human remains believed to be thousands of years old

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A young girl recently discovered what she and her family believe is a human skull.

When 12-year-old Lilly wandered down the banks of the Brazos River earlier this month, she saw something unusual.

She had found what appeared to be a human skull.

“It's truly remarkable. I mean, it's one thing to find a skull but the skull actually has a story, and Lilly got to tell it,” said Charles Garfinkel, her father.

For years, Lilly and her family have been finding fossilized animal bones along the river.

After some research, Lilly believes the skull is thousands of years old and was from a teenage Native American girl. She even identified a hole that may have come from a cultural nose piercing.

“I found a foreign object in the nasal cavity which is bone, and it appears to be a bone piercing through the nose, which was either done incorrectly or damaged by accident,” said Lilly.

Lilly is a budding anthropologist and said she was inspired by her favorite TV scientist “Bones.” Like the scientist, she said she is determined to find the truth behind the bones, behind the skull that she's now named Joe Brazos.

“It was really exciting to me. I've been wanting to find something that traces back to Indians or human from the river, and I finally did, and I was really happy about that,” said Lilly.

The family has contacted local universities about properly dating the skull as well as the Fort Bend Sheriff's Office. Deputies came out to the house to investigate the skull but did not take it with them, saying the skull does not look recent.