About 100 brains including that of massed killer Charles Whitman go missing from University of Texas at Austin

ABOUT 100 brains, including that of a mass killer, have gone missing from a university, leaving esteemed professors scratching their heads.

MAR 08, 2001 : A brain from the Westmead Children's Hospital Museum in /Sydney, PicAlanPryke. NSW / Medical human organs body parts

ABOUT 100 brains have gone missing from a university, leaving esteemed professors scratching their heads.

One of the missing brains, preserved in jars of formaldehyde, is believed to have belonged to Charles Whitman, who shot dead 16 people and wounded 32 others when he fired from an observation deck at the University of Texas at Austin in August 1966. The former US Marine killed his wife and mother beforehand.

The missing brains are about half the collection at the University of Texas at Austin and officials believe students may have stolen the organs, Austin American-Statesman reported.

“It’s entirely possible word got around among undergraduates and people started swiping them for (ornaments in) living rooms or Halloween pranks,” said psychology Professor Lawrence Cormack.

Mass killer ... Charles Whitman‘s brain is believed to have gone missing.

Not a suspect ... Professor Susan Greenfield with a model of a human brain.

Apparently over 100 human brains have been stolen from UT. Suspects include Janitors, Undergrads, and Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz...

— Rylan William Veigel (@RylanVeigel) December 3, 2014

The Austin State Hospital had transferred the brains to the university about 28 years ago under a “temporary possession” agreement.

Co-curator Tim Schallert said his psychology lab had room for only 100 brains, so the rest were moved to the basement of the university’s Animal Resources Centre.

“They are no longer in the basement,” Cormack said.

University of Texas looks for clues after 100 human brains are lost: http://t.co/DHUzb7drfX pic.twitter.com/G8JT5JuTzT

— Austin Statesman (@statesman) December 3, 2014

The university said in a statement that it will investigate “the circumstances surrounding this collection since it came here nearly 30 years ago” and that it’s “committed to treating the brain specimens with respect.”

It says the remaining brain specimens on campus are used “as a teaching tool and carefully curated by faculty.”

The university’s agreement with the hospital required the school to remove any data that might identify the person from whom the brain came. However, Schallert said Whitman’s brain likely was part of the collection.

“It would make sense it would be in this group. We can’t find that brain,” he said.

The University of Texas at Austin is missing about 100 brains. Rick Perry is trying out new ones to see which one fits best.

— Lee Mays (@OriginalLeeMays) December 3, 2014

The 100 remaining brains at the school have been moved to the Norman Hackerman Building, where they are being scanned with high-resolution resonance imaging equipment, Cormack said.

“These MRI images will be both useful teaching and research tools. It keeps the brains intact.”