GREENSBURG, Pa. — The unidentified bodies of a baby boy and a young girl were exhumed Friday from a pauper's grave in western Pennsylvania in attempts to solve the nearly 50-year-old separate criminal cases by using modern technology, state police say.
A Westmoreland County judge signed an order Tuesday authorizing the removal of the bodies from plot A-608 at Potter's Field in Hempfield Township, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. They were interred in 1967.
The bodies were exhumed Friday by members of the Forensic Anthropology Department at Mercyhurst University in Erie.
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Police hope to solve the two cold cases by using technology that was not available during the initial investigation.
Trooper Brian Gross, who is heading the investigation, said the process of trying to determine the identities of the two children will take months. He said everyone involved in the initial investigations is now deceased.
Investigators will compare DNA from the bodies with information in a database of family members of missing people.
The body of the infant was found lodged in a pipe at the Jeannette Sewage Treatment Plant. Investigators at the time said the baby apparently died from "suffocation by drowning." The infant suffered skull fractures and was potentially discarded shortly after its birth.
The body of a girl between the ages of 10 and 16 was found naked near the Colvan Sanitary Landfill in Salem. The body was so badly decomposed that a cause of death couldn't be determined. Her skull will undergo a CT scan at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and will then be analyzed by researchers at the University of North Texas.
Police have used old reports to pinpoint the time range they suspect her body was dumped at the landfill.
The Thompson family told Channel 11 News that they believe the girl is a relative.
Family members said Teala Patricia Thompson was 13 and working at a dry cleaner business in Homewood when she disappeared in September of 1967.
“She never returned home. Everybody went out searching for her, looking for her,” Teala’s sister, Mary Thompson, said. “My dad said it was her, but the mom was in denial. That's why I believe this case was never closed. They buried her as a Jane Doe.”
Police confirmed the girl buried at the pauper's grave matches the dental records from 1967. The Thompson family believes the girl is Teala.
"A quick assessment of the skull teeth and mandible match the dental records from an autopsy performed in 1967,” coroner Ken Bacha said.
However, a final determination won’t be made for several months.