Former College of Charleston researcher accused of stealing fossils worth thousands from the college

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — Police are investigating after rare fossils were reported missing from the College of Charleston’s Mace Brown Natural History Museum and a former employee is accused in their disappearance.

Dr. Scott Persons called the College of Charleston’s campus police to report missing property from the museum on Mar. 7, according to an incident report.

Persons told police a rare dolphin jaw and teeth fossil, a 3D printed whale skull, an extremely rare fish jaw, and a seal skeleton were all missing from the museum, and he believed Robert Boessenecker, a former researcher and professor at the College of Charleston, to be responsible.

Dr. Persons explained that Robert had given the toothed dolphin skull and the paperwork for it back to the person who originally donated the skeleton to the museum.

Robert reportedly bragged, saying his wife, Sarah Boessenecker, had ‘pulled a few strings’ so that all official records of the fossil donation were gone. Sarah was previously the Mace Brown Museum’s museum collection manager.

In addition, Persons advised Robert had told a witness that he stole fossils from the museum. Police spoke to the witness that Persons identified, and she verified that while she was helping Robert move out of his office, he bragged to the witness about taking fossils from the museum and then asked her to store some of the boxes from his office for him because he didn’t have room for them.

She also provided an audio recording of Robert boasting about how the box the witness was holding, “was actually a proto-seal from the Oregon coast that he took from the museum when he got ‘shit-canned’,” the report said. Robert and the College parted ways in August 2023, according to police reports, although the reason is unclear.

Regarding the missing fish jaw or Conosaurus Bowmani Jaw, Persons said the museum was asked to provide a specimen for examination. The jaw is “one of the only known of this species in existence,” the report states. When searching for the jaw, it could not be found, and all records of it were gone.

Robert and Sarah became early employees of the Charleston Center for Paleontology after their employment with the College of Charleston. Investigators reported seeing a picture of Robert, Sarah, and the missing 3D-printed whale skull on the center’s website. All pictures of Robert and Sarah have since been removed from the center’s website.

After reaching out to the center, Elizabeth Kane, board chair and founder, said the center could not comment on the investigation. Still, she did say the center is cooperating with police and the College of Charleston to ensure all specimens are returned to where they belong.

Investigators reached out to experts in the industry, and one from the South Carolina State Museum said that removing paperwork for the fossils was illegal. He also said he knew Robert and Sarah and that the couple knew how to handle fossil removal properly. The expert explained that records are always kept for specimens in case they are needed for later examination.

Another expert with the National Park Service reiterated that the way the fossils were removed was wrong and unethical. They, too, knew Robert and said he knew the proper removal methods.

Campus police obtained search warrants for three locations, including Robert and Sarah’s home, the Charleston Center for Paleontology, and a storage container rented by Robert in Summerville.

Law enforcement discovered numerous documents and items belonging to the Mace Brown Museum, including multiple 3D-printed skulls, one of which was a whale skull, a box of dolphin skulls labeled “#64” skulls, a container labeled LA County Museum that contained a fossil, a cardboard box containing a fossil labeled “Bobby” from the National Park Service, and several other boxes of fossils.

According to reports, all the items were placed in evidence. This case is under investigation. No update has been given on the Boesseneckers’ after police recovered all the items. Various posts on the couple’s social pages say they plan to move to San Diego in June 2024. Robert said he received a research fellowship at the San Diego Natural History Museum on his blog.