UPDATE (5/1/24): Philadelphia police have identified the remains in the duffel bag as 4-year-old Demari Carter, who had been missing since December.
Carter's mother, 28-year-old Dominique Bailey, and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Kevin Spencer, were charged with murder in January in connection to the boy's death. Bailey allegedly had told her family that her son was fatally struck by a car, but investigators found no evidence of a crash.
Police used DNA testing to confirm that the decomposed remains found in the duffel bag were Carter's, authorities said.
See the original story below.
The remains of a child were found inside a duffel bag in Mantua on Monday morning, Philadelphia police said.
The remains were discovered by a man who had been doing work in the rear of a home on the 600 block of North 38th Street, investigators said. The man showed police the duffel bag, which contained severely decomposed remains of a child, when they responded to the property.
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The gender and age of the child could not immediately be determined, police said.
An investigation is underway and police said they will provide updates when more information is available.