The University of Texas at Austin is missing about 100 brains — about half of the specimens the university had in a collection preserved in jars of formaldehyde.

One of the missing brains is believed to have come from clock tower sniper Charles Whitman.

“We think somebody may have taken the brains but we don’t know at all for sure,” psychology Professor Tim Schallert, co-curator of the collection, told the Austin American-Statesman.

His co-curator, psychology Professor Lawrence Cormack, said: “It’s entirely possible word got around among undergraduates and people started swiping them for living rooms or Halloween pranks.”

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

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

The university said in a statement that it would investigate “the circumstances surrounding this collection since it came here nearly 30 years ago” and that it was “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.

Whitman’s 1966 rampage, which culminated at the University of Texas, killed 16 people, including his mother and wife. Eleven of the victims were fatally shot by Whitman who had barricaded himself on the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower before he was killed by police.

The 100 remaining brains at the school had been moved to the Norman Hackerman Building, where they were 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,” he told the newspaper.