Child’s coffin containing human organs found on Philadelphia sidewalk

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Police say an infant-sized casket with human remains that was found Monday in North Philadelphia was dumped by an employee from a New Jersey funeral home.

Police say the casket contained the remains of a 3- to 4-month-old baby buried in South Jersey last Thursday.

According to CBS Philadelphia, 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.

An employee then 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 Capt. Malachi 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.”

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.”