Infant human organs found in small casket on North Philadelphia street

Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Human organs found in small casket
Human organs found in small casket: Nydia Han reports during Action News at 6 a.m. on July 4, 2017.

NORTH PHILADELPHIA -- Police are investigating a bizarre discovery in North Philadelphia: infant human organs placed a small, child-size casket that was found on a sidewalk.

Police were called to the 3000 block of West Clearfield Street just after 9 p.m. Monday.

Watch Action Cam and Chopper 6 video from the scene where two infant human organs were discovered in a casket.

Officers arrived to find a small, closed casket.

When they opened it, they found a plastic bag containing what the Medical Examiner later confirmed to be two human organs from an infant.

"The coffin appeared to be a fresh coffin," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told Action News. "It was possibly taken from a funeral home or possibly dug from the ground from a fresh grave."

Police searched two nearby cemeteries to see if any graves had been disturbed, but saw no evidence of that.

They are contacting area funeral homes as they work to determine where the casket and organs came from, who left them there and why.