A human heart was discovered by workers at a Tennessee government facility producing salt brine for roadways.

Employees at a Tennessee Department of Transportation facility in McEwen discovered the organ on Thursday, December 15 while preparing for an impending snow storm.

The heart was taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Nashville, where investigators determined it belonged to an adult male.

It was unclear how long the organ had remained preserved in the salt barn.

‘It’s speculated that it could have been there for just a few weeks,’ Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told reporters. According to Davis, the workers initially thought dried-out organ was a rock.

‘Additional DNA testing will be performed to try to determine its origin,’ the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced. ‘This remains an active and ongoing investigation.’

On Monday, investigators widened the scope of the inquiry and determined the case was officially a homicide. The entire Transportation Department facility is now being treated as a crime scene. No other human remains have been found so far.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation said they were ‘fully cooperating’ with the investigation at the facility.

‘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,’ Sheriff Davis said.

The 32-year law enforcement veteran called the entire case ‘bizarre.’

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

Davis confirmed that investigators do not believe there is a threat to the public at large.

Investigators have asked for the public’s help with identifying persons of interest in this perplexing case. So far, there have been no matches with the DNA sample collected from the heart.

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