Human heart is found by workers at a Tennessee government salt facility

A human heart has been uncovered among piles of salt at a Tennessee Department of Transportation facility.

Workers at the facility in McEwen, west of Nashville, were making preparations for inclement weather on Thursday when they came across something unusual that was later confirmed to be a human heart, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said.

The organ was transported to the state medical examiner’s office in Nashville, where testing of tissue samples confirmed that it was an adult male human heart, Davis said. 

The heart had been dehydrated by the salt and it was unclear how long it had been there, he said.

Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis confirmed the bizarre find and said that the site was now considered a crime scene

Workers at the facility in McEwen, west of Nashville, found the human heart, believing it at first to be a stone

Davis told WKRN in Nashville that the facility was being treated as a crime scene. 

‘I’ve been on some crazy stuff, but this is by far, one of the most unusual crime scenes I’ve ever been on,’ he said.

He encouraged anyone who thinks they might have information about what might have happened to reach out to TBI or the sheriff’s office.

‘Everybody’s somebody’s somebody, and at the end of the day it would bother me if I laid down my head at night not knowing that we’d done everything we can for this person and this person’s family,’ Davis said.

‘I’ve got 32 years in law enforcement. I do have to say this is probably in the top 5 of most bizarre things that I’ve ever seen.

‘At this time we don’t feel that anybody’s safety is in question,’ explained Davis.

Authorities are investigating the discovery of a human heart in a salt pile at a Tennessee Department of Transportation facility

It’s currently unclear how long the human organ was in the salt pile

‘It was found in the salt where TDOT is preparing to attack the bad weather, severe weather conditions that we have.

‘At first they thought it was a rock. The process of what salt does to that, it dries it out.’ Davis said. ‘It’s speculated that it could have been there for just a few weeks.

“TDOT’s on board working with us to try and find any kind of information about where the salt came from and when it came in,” he added. 

After searching throughout the weekend, no other remains were found at the facility after crews sifted through the salt barn.