What’s a creepier, more frightening image in the wake of Hurricane Sandy than a giant tree in a city park torn up by its roots? Try a giant tree in a city park torn up by its roots with a human skeleton tangled therein, discovered at sundown on Halloween.

In New Haven, CT, a homeless woman found just that: a human skull, teeth intact, still connected to a spine and rib cage, attached to the root ball of a large tree on the Upper Green. The woman, Katie Carbo, called to police, who in turn called Alfredo Camargo, state “death investigator” (real title), who arrived on the scene just after sundown on the night of the dead. Wearing a Tyvek suit and white rubber gloves, Camargo jumped into the hole.

According to the New Haven Independent, “He brought a toolkit with hand-held rakes, sifters, trowels, and brushes. He predicted the job will take at least a couple of hours—if it doesn’t rain.”

Truly, the whole article in the Independent reads like a chapter in a young adult horror novel. It even mentions a local artist named Silas Finch (seriously!), who witnessed the tree falling on Monday evening, and ventured out in the storm to root around “for hours” in the tangle of roots, “looking for old coins.”

Police say the discovery probably doesn’t indicate a murder—the tree stood on top of an old cemetery, which the city long ago transformed into a public park.

Check out more pics at New Haven Independent.