Second skull found in Angeles National Forest

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST -- The investigation into a human skull found with an apparent bullet hole in it in the Angeles National Forest on Thursday led officials to find a second human skull in the same area Saturday.
The second set of human remains were discovered about 10:30 a.m. near Angeles Forest Highway mile marker 17, about two miles south of where hikers discovered another skull Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.
The remains appeared to have been in the forest prior to the massive Station Fire that burned large portions of the forest -- including the area where the remains were found -- after it erupted in August, officials said.
"From what I understand, they'd been there quite a while," Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Jeff Hardt said. Officials declined to estimate how long the bones may have been there.
Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Investigator Jerry McKibben said at least one of the skulls appeared to have been skeletonized prior to the Station Fire.
No description of the people the bones came from was available Saturday, he added.
"The anthropologist is going to look at them Monday," McKibben said.
The first skull was discovered by hikers Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Bill Braughberger said in a written statement.
"Deputies responded and noted the skull had an apparent bullet hole," he said.
Sheriff's and coroner's officials returned to search the area Saturday when they found the second skull, officials said.
"A second set of human remains was found within a close proximity of where the initial skull was found," Braughberger added.
Sheriff's officials said it was too early to tell whether or not the two deaths were related to each other, or mere coincidence.
"It's possible they're not related," Deputy Robert Boese said. "But it's also possible that they are."
The detectives handling the investigation could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Authorities are looking into the possibility that the remains were both originally at the same location, Hardt said, but the skull found Thursday may have been moved up the road a short distance by an earth-moving Caltrans vehicle.
It was not clear late Saturday if more searches of the areas where the remains were found are planned.
No further information was released.