Police are investigating after the remains of a child were found in a duffel bag in an alleyway in West Philadelphia on Monday morning.
According to police, the grim discovery was made when Community Life Improvement Program workers, who were cleaning along the 600 block of North 38th Street in West Philadelphia's Mantua neighborhood, opened up a duffel bag that they found.
Inside, officials said, the workers found the unidentified remains of a child believed to have been between the ages of two and four years old.
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A law enforcement official told NBC10 that police secured the location at about 10:15 a.m. and that the remains were "in the poor state of decomposition" and were likely in that bag for some time.
Police are still working to identify the remains and have not yet determined how the child may have died.
Neighbors were shaken up by the news of the discovery.
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"That makes no sense like no child deserves that," said Ariel Williams, who was driving by the scene when she saw a sanitation worker distraught and stopped to ask what was going on.
It's a tragedy unfamiliar to this neighborhood.
“It's sad. You know how people say stuff like this doesn’t happen in their neighborhood but stuff like this does not happen. We’ve never had something like this happen in this area," Yvette Patrick, a neighbor said. "It's sad like my condolences to the child."
Officials said an investigation is ongoing.
"I just pray they find out who he is, where he belongs to and can bury him properly," Patrick said.
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