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Alas, Poor Yorick…: ‘Skull’ found in Tucker County was a prop for horror movie

(Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)

THOMAS, W.Va. — A skull that was found at the bottom of Douglas Falls in Tucker County during the summer has turned out to be nothing more than a horror movie prop, officials said.

Tucker County Sheriff Jake Kopec confirmed this week that the skull found at the popular hiking location on July 30 was actually a prop used for a film that was shot in Tucker County.

“We sent that skull off to the medical examiner, and they called us and said when they went to X-ray it, they realized it was basically made of some sort of plastic,” Kopec said. “It looked as real as you can get, close enough that the local medical examiner requested it to be sent off.”

The skull was one of many props being used for the film “Tie Die,” said Chris Phares, who was in charge of special effects for the movie.

“We were filming a horror film and we were using some skulls that were super-realistic,” Phares told The Inter-Mountain. “They were so realistic that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between them and something reaI.

“We wanted to clear up the whole skull business after we saw the original story in the newspaper, so I went and talked to the police about it.”

Phares said he and the movie’s director, Morgan Miller, believed they had taken all the skulls that were used during the film’s shooting with them when they left the location.

“We were able to retrieve all of them except for the one that was found, and had it not been for the drought this summer, nobody would have probably found it,” said Phares, who also has an acting role in the movie and is the film’s executive producer.

“There are serial numbers on the back of the skulls, but I think that part was busted off the one that was found. That skull was there for like a whole year under the water. I actually threw a bunch of skulls off of Douglas Falls for a scene we were shooting there.”

Filming of the movie began in July 2022. Work was completed on the film, produced by Sir Reel Pictures, in August 2023.

“We didn’t mean to cause a commotion, and we did not mean to do this,” Phares said. “It was a regrettable accident, and we sincerely apologize. We had no intention of causing panic or wasting law enforcement’s time and resources.”

Law enforcement officers were called to Douglas Falls, which is near the town of Thomas, after hikers came across what was believed to be a human skull. The skull, which had washed up from the water and was found at the bottom of the falls, was immediately sent off to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Charleston for testing.

“We can’t really tamper with a skull when we find it,” Kopec said. “A police officer is not going to take it back to his desk and start breaking and chipping stuff off of it, because to us it’s an entity of a potential criminal investigation. We don’t want to destroy or tamper with evidence, so that’s why we send stuff off to the crime lab. They’re the ones that start poking and prodding, so to speak.”

Kopec said when officers took the skull to a local medical examiner, it was believed the skull was that of a younger person.

“After looking at it, they said it needed to be sent off to the state medical examiner for further examination,” he said. “They immediately called me and said that it was a fake, that it was a plastic movie prop or something. They said that it was a very good fake, though.”

The Tucker County Sheriff’s Office received assistance from the West Virginia State Police at the location where the skull was discovered.

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