Someone's Heart Was Found In A Ziploc Bag In A Field

What kind of heartless person...wait...never mind. WARNING: This post contains graphic photos of a heart. Like, a heart outside a body.

By
Tasneem Nashrulla
by Tasneem Nashrulla

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Police in Ohio are investigating how a heart that is likely human ended up in a ziploc bag in a field.

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Sgt. Jim Fulton of the Norwalk Police Department told BuzzFeed News Tuesday that the coroner's office was testing the heart to confirm if it was human. "We are reasonably certain it was a human heart — 95%," Fulton said.

"It's a pretty unusual find," he added.

An EMS crew called the police department on Aug. 25 to report that they had possibly located a human heart in a field where the crew usually parked.

At first, the crew members threw the heart in a dumpster after the dispatcher told them to get rid of it, Fulton said. But they retrieved it from the trash and called the police after the dispatcher told them it could be human.

"From the condition of the heart, it doesn't appear we have a Jack the Ripper type of case going on," Fulton said.

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"We don't want the public to worry," Fulton said. "Like someone ripping out people's hearts — we don't think that's the case here."

The coroner is testing fluid from the heart to see if it contained any preservatives, which would suggest it came from a hospital or a teaching institution.

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"Maybe there's a reasonable explanation," he said.

Fulton said that police investigated a case a couple of years ago when someone found a fetus in a jar in a house they moved into. Police discovered that it was left by a doctor who taught at a medical school.

"But we've never found [a heart] in a plastic bag before," Fulton said.

UPDATE

After the heart was tested by authorities in October 2016, they determined that it wasn't a human heart.

"It was never determined what type of animal heart it was," Sgt. Jim Fulton of the Norwalk Police Department told BuzzFeed News in Oct. 2017.

"As far as how the heart happened to be where it was found, there is much speculation, but no answer at this point," Fulton said in an email. "I have suspicions, but no evidence of confession. The case is closed as far as I am concerned; we are in the middle of a heroin and opioid epidemic (here and across the country), dealing with overdoses and deaths on an almost daily basis, so unless someone comes in with information the origin of the heart will remain a mystery."

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