DETROIT – Human remains have been discovered behind a garage on Detroit’s northwest side.
The remains were found on Monday (Jan. 6) at 12:57 p.m. in the 19700 block of Woodingham Drive.
Detroit police Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald said the homeowner had a construction crew come out and renovate the home when they discovered a shallow grave behind the garage.
“Upon their working, they discovered in a very shallow grave behind the garage what appeared to be a foot and part of a shin bone, not even a bone Shin sticking out of the ground,” said Fitzgerald.
The body was wrapped in a burlap bag of some sort.
“Small in frame and structure, but as of right now, we don’t know, which is why we have the FBI here to help us,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re going to do an excavation as there is not a lot of room back there, so it’s going to take some good old-fashioned muscle and shoveling and stuff.”
With temperatures being in the single digits and how it impacts the discovery, Fitzgerald said it would be a long night for them.
As far as the assistance by the FBI, Fitzgerald said they help with finding “Missing and or exploited children, we work with them in one of our taskforces and our missing persons unit is out here; homicide is out here. We’re reaching out to all of our partners to see if we can find out what we have here.”
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office is determining whether the remains are human, but Fitzgerald said it’s going to be a while before they have any information on the body.
When it comes to the construction crew, Fitzgerald said, “It appears that they’re doing some work. There was some of the siding from the garage peeling off, and I think they made their way back there, and you can see part of the ground was disturbed. And then that’s you discovered the foot.”
The house has been vacant since the last person who lived there moved out sometime in November, and as far as information pertaining to the body, officials say they will learn more by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
“Once the body is retrieved, then we have to find out where it came from,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s going to be tough for us, but we’re going to work around the clock and hopefully get the body out as soon as we possibly can.”
Fitzgerald said they’d love to have the community help with the situation.
“We’d love the community’s help,” Fitzgerald said. “If you know of anyone it was used to live there, missing anything, anything you can give us. We’d love the assistance.”
“We can confirm that members from the FBI’s Detroit Field Office Evidence Response Team are on the scene in Detroit assisting the Detroit Police Department. We routinely assist our law enforcement partners upon request; however, this does not necessarily result in the FBI opening an investigation. FBI policy prohibits the confirmation of the existence of investigations, the release of information on investigations, and any public report on the closing of an investigation.”
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Watch the full press conference below:
Detroit police Deputy Chief Franklin Hayes gives update on human remains:
