Philadelphia

Police exhume remains of unidentified homicide victims in Philadelphia

Philadelphia police exhumed unidentified human remains at Potter's Field as part of an ongoing project, officials said

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Police are digging up human remains as part of an ongoing project to identify the bodies of homicide victims in Philadelphia, some of whom died decades ago.

The Philadelphia Police Homicide Unit as well as local, state, university and federal collaborators -- including the FBI -- partnered up to create the Remains Identification Project (RIP) to exhume and identify victims who died tragically.

Police said all the remains are of unidentified people whose deaths were ruled by the Medical Examiner as a homicide, probable homicide or undetermined.

The project -- which is funded by a grant -- began in 2021 and the current weeklong operation is occurring after six months of planning, according to officials.

Tuesday afternoon, officials exhumed remains at Potter’s Field on 12841 Dunks Ferry Road in Philadelphia.

Police said they are currently working to collect the unidentified bodies of eight homicide victims from the field, including a child between the ages of 4 and 6 who died in 1962.

The FBI and homicide investigators with the Philadelphia police are digging up human remains hoping to get answers in several unsolved murders.  Of the eight human remains crews will dig up, the youngest is that of a 4 to 6-year-old girl who died in 1962. A similar effort in 2018 led to seven people being identified. NBC10's Leah Uko has the details.

Portions of the remains will be recovered for DNA testing and sequencing to apply Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy (FIGG) techniques, according to officials. The investigators will then work to notify surviving family members.

“We’re trying to get to a close relative,” Ryan Gallagher, Assistant Director of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Office of Forensics Science, said on Tuesday. “Once we get to a close relative, detectives can go out and they can interview family members to see if they have a loved one that’s unidentified or they don’t know about.”

A similar operation took place in Philadelphia back in 2018. Officials also said similar technology was used when investigators identified the "Boy in the Box" in December 2022, more than 60 years after the child's death.

The exhumation efforts will continue through the week, according to officials.

The field where the bodies are being exhumed is a city-owned property that was once a cemetery for unidentified victims, police said.

Law enforcement officials have been digging up the remains of eight homicide victims who were killed decades ago but never identified. How long it'll take them to ID these victims will depend on the quality of the remains and if anyone in their families have an online DNA profile. NBC10's Claudia Vargas has more on what this process will look like and how long it'll take.
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