Workers making brine in Tennessee found a human heart, prompting a law enforcement investigation to determine its origins, state officials said.
Workers found the heart Thursday at a state Transportation Department salt facility in McEwen, about 60 miles southwest of Nashville, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
“An initial examination of the heart determined that it was that of an adult male,” the bureau said in a statement Sunday. “Additional DNA testing will be performed to try to determine its origin. This remains an active and ongoing investigation.”
The statement said 23rd Judicial District Attorney General Ray Crouch requested that the agency investigate. The investigation will be conducted with Humphreys County sheriff’s deputies, the state bureau said.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told NBC affiliate WSMV of Nashville: “I’ve got 32 years in law enforcement. I do have to say this is probably in the top 5 of most bizarre things that I’ve ever seen.”
The station reported that as workers retrieved salt from their barn, they discovered what they believed to be a weirdly shaped rock. The heart appeared to have been there for a while, and it was dehydrated from the salt, Davis told WSMV.
No one with the sheriff’s office could be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
The Transportation Department is “fully cooperating with law enforcement as they continue their investigation,” a spokesperson with the agency said in a statement Monday.