Human brains from a research lab at the University of Texas located in Austin went missing 12 years ago and a professor said that students might have used it for Halloween but it turns out that the environmental workers were responsible for the mysterious missing brains.

The university released a statement on Wednesday saying that the environmental workers were asked to dispose 40 to 60 jars wherein some contained the said brains. This happened when faculty members said that the contents of the jars were not good enough anymore for research or for teaching.

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The mystery resurfaced recently as a book was released about a brain collection that the said university received 28 years ago from the Austin State Hospital. The supposed missing items were reportedly part of an original collection that included 200 brains stored at the Animal Resource Center.

The co-curator of the said collection, a psychology professor named Tim Schallert, released a statement on Tuesday saying that it was not clear what really happened to almost half of the collection going missing.

His fellow professor and co-curator identified as Lawrence Cormack said that it might have been possible that undergraduates and other people began taking the jars for living room displays or pranks.

The university then started to investigate but just this Wednesday, the school announced that they could not yet confirm how many jars were destroyed that contained the said brains. A committee will be appointed to investigate the case and determine how all the specimens were handled since the collection was received.

The university stressed that they know the scientific value of these items and take their responsibilities as caretakers very seriously.

Another issue cleared out by the university is that they found no evidence supporting claims that the brain of Charles Whitman, someone who shot 16 people from the clock tower of the university back in 1966, was part of the said collection. University spokesman Gary Susswein said that it just might have been an urban legend.

TagsCase, Missing brains, University of Texas, mystery of missing brains, austin, Texas