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Authorities Exhume Bodies In Effort To Close Decades-Old Cold Cases

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Police are hoping to solve a series of decades-old cold cases by exhuming several victims' bodies from cemeteries.

Authorities on Monday exhumed four people from United Memorial Gardens in Plymouth Township in hopes that DNA evidence can help solve those cases. The remains of a fifth person were exhumed on Oct. 31.

Some of the remains are presumed to be juveniles, as the exhumations were funded by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

All five are cases from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office.

In one of the cases, an unidentified female body with multiple stab wounds was found Feb. 10, 1987, at an incinerator dumping yard.

In another case, a girl went missing in the late 1980s and hasn't been found. Detroit police say an unidentified female was buried and may be a match due to the date of discovery and physical size. No DNA had been obtained from the body before its burial.

Another case reportedly deals with a young female who apparently died of a drug overdose in 1976.

TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

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