French police have opened a murder inquiry after the macabre and mysterious discovery of a skull and other bones belonging to at least four people in the sea close to the Riviera resort of Antibes, reports AFP.
The relics were recovered by police in February after an amateur diver came across the skull while searching for sea urchins just off the rocky Cap d'Antibes promontory.
Nine months later, DNA testing has enabled investigators to establish that one of the bones, part of an arm, belonged to Stephane Hirson, a psychologically disturbed teenager who disappeared from his home near Paris in February 1994.
But they have been left scratching their heads over the origin of the other bones, which they have established came from another man, two women and possibly one other person.
The skull, which came from a man aged at least 50, has proved particularly intriguing as it had a target sign drawn on it, together with the words "death to pedophiles" written in indelible ink.
Read more of this report from AFP.