HARTFORD, Conn. « A Connecticut man says two human skulls found at a garbage processing center had been purchased "as a joke" by his now-deceased son.

Eighty-nine-year-old Fairfield resident Robert DeVitto told The Associated Press on Friday that he wasn’t aware the skulls were real. It wasn’t clear if his son knew they were real.

The skulls were found at a Stamford waste transfer station near some books and videos on witchcraft and Satan. The state medical examiner determined they were from an older man and woman.

DeVitto tells the Hearst Media Group that his son Robert lived a "troubled life" before he died this month at 56.

The skulls were removed along with other items belonging to the man by a junk dealer and brought to the transfer station Thursday. Officials there notified police.