Police: Funeral Home Employee Dumped Casket With Infant's Remains Inside
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia police say an infant-sized casket with human remains that was found in North Philadelphia was dumped by an employee from a New Jersey funeral home.
The casket with the baby's organs was discovered on the 3000 block of Clearfield Street on Monday night.
Police say the casket contained the remains of a 3- to 4-month-old baby buried in South Jersey last Thursday.
According to detectives, shortly before the baby's funeral, workers at the funeral home noticed the casket latch was broken, so they transferred the body into a new casket.
Capt. Malachi Jones won't release the name of the funeral home, but says for some reason, an employee there drove the broken casket to North Philadelphia and dumped it on the street.
The person claimed he didn't realize the baby's remains were still inside.
"That's what we're trying to determine exactly why it was discarded," said Jones. "As we said, we are definitely investigating that and we have good direction and we are confident that this will be brought to closure very shortly."
Sources told CBS3 that employees at Stanley's Memorial Chapel on Kaighn Avenue in Camden are being investigated.
No one at the chapel wanted to speak. The person who answered the phone said they're not responsible, but wouldn't elaborate.
Investigators are determining if any charges will be filed against the employee or the funeral home.
"We've been conferring with the DA's office and we are definitely considering that," said Jones. "That's being considered as far as our investigation goes, as far as abuse of corpse and related charges with that."