WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — A mystery still surrounds human remains found by construction workers at an apartment building in Southeast, D.C.
At a Monday news conference, police said they have not been able to identify the remains yet.
The discovery was made last Wednesday at an apartment building on the 100 block of Wayne Place SE.
WUSA9’s Scott Broom posted three photos showing what a plumbing contractor discovered as he was working in the crawlspace of the building. Photos show a human skull and other bones.
The worker called police. Chief Peter Newsham said cadaver dogs searched the scene and found two more sets of bones on Saturday.
All three remains are female, according to DC Medical Examiner, Dr. Roger Mitchell.
Mitchell said they made this assessment looking at the hip bones. Females and males have very distinct pelvises, according to the medical examiner. He told reporters pelvic bones were discovered in all three sets.
Dr. Roger would not say whether there was any evidence of trauma. He was also unable to say how old the bones were or how long they’ve been sitting in the Southeast, D.C. lot.
Chief Newsham described the remains as “dated.”
"We're definitely not dealing with infants so we know that,” said Dr. Mitchell.
The second location where the two sets of bones were found, was described as a “shallow grave” with “co-mingled remains.”
Chief Newsham made a plea for any previous residents of the empty building to contact the department.
“If they come forward, it's going to make our work a lot easier,” the chief said.
Maybe. Maybe not. That was the response of a man who said if you wanted to hide something, it wouldn’t be hard to do so in the Southeast, D.C. building involved.
The man is a contractor who said his team dug-out a next-door building.
"These old buildings, you find people that are living in the bottom of them all the time. Especially in these neighborhoods. You get in Southeast, anywhere – there was a building just recently that had to kick people out over and over. As soon as we leave, they come running in the basement…homeless, crack heads,” said the contractor.
George Tobias is a neighbor who said at this point, he just hopes someone gets closure.
"I just feel bad for the families, that's all,” Tobias told WUSA9.
Police said they will also be looking through the tenant records of the building in question. Property records say it was built in 1948. Police also plan to review the city’s missing person’s cases.
The chief told reporters they’re not calling this a homicide yet. It’s too early in the investigation. However, they’re also not ruling anything out.
