LUMBERTON — A skull found earlier this month by railroad tracks near Lumber Bridge has been identified as 24-year-old Varcy Locklear of Pembroke, who investigators believe was decapitated while riding atop an Amtrak train as it went under a bridge.

Investigators say Locklear was on a cargo car on a northbound Amtrak train on Oct. 30 and that he was killed while passing under a bridge near N.C. 20 and Red Road in the St. Pauls area.

The North Carolina Medical Examiner's Officer recently identified Locklear's skull, which was found Dec. 11 by a survey crew near the bridge, according to a news release Wednesday night from the Robeson County Sheriff's Office.

Locklear's headless body was found Oct. 30 in between railroad tracks approximately 128 miles away in Enfield, investigators said. Locklear's funeral was Nov. 4, according to an obituary.

Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods confirmed Thursday in an email that a person was found dead shortly before 1 p.m. Oct. 30 on the track in Enfield, causing a rail service delay.

“Service on an Amtrak train was temporarily suspended at the request of local law enforcement,” Woods said. “It was reported of a possible interaction with the train and a person who was on the track. Service was suspended in order for Amtrak, and local authorities to investigate. The train was cleared to resume service about 46 minutes later. The train was heading to New York. The train originated in Charlotte. At the time of the incident, 99 customers were on the train. There are no reported injuries to customers or crew members.”

Locklear was known by police to hop onto trains without buying a ticket and was charged numerous times with trespassing, investigators said.

“He has been charged in the past with some trespassing charges dealing with trains,” Enfield police Capt. Dreher Bozard said. “He has been charged, and he's also been warned several times about trespassing on train property, so he has a history of this. He also has gone on Facebook before and posted a video on Facebook live of him standing in front of a train and jumping out of the way at the last second.”

Investigators said they believe Locklear's death was accidental.

[UNSOLVED: Two Fayetteville boys went to a movie in 1964. They were never seen again]

“It is still under investigation,” Enfield police Detective Willie Murphy said. “Right now, we don't believe there is any type of foul play.”

He did not know why Locklear was standing on the train. He said they are waiting on toxicology reports and the autopsy.

[UNSOLVED: How did these three Lumberton women die?]

An Enfield resident found the body and notified law enforcement.

"It's a bizarre case,” Murphy said. “They were shocked like anybody else would be to see anything of that magnitude.''

Investigators believe Locklear's body fell off as the result of the train swaying when it passed through a track switching area.

“He fell off about 50 yards from the switch,” Bozard said. “As the train is switching, you have a lot of rattle back and forth. It dislodged the body from the roof. That's how the body ended up in the town of Enfield.”

He said police located the Amtrak cargo car Locklear was riding on.

“In this case, we located the train and car he was on top of and we found blood samples and there was blood spatter consistent with everything that happened,” said Bozard.

Anyone with information about Locklear's death should contact Maj. Damien McLean or Lt. Brandon Patterson at 910-671-3100.

Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at jhenderson@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3596.