PLOT TWIST

Philly Now Says Remains of 1985 Bombing Victims Were Found in Basement

The MOVE bombing victims were thought to have been cremated without notifying their relatives. Now, city officials insist the remains were found in a basement.

One day after Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney's administration said that the 1985 MOVE bombing victims had been cremated and discarded without notifying relatives, officials reversed course and said they were never destroyed and were simply in a basement. Health Commissioner Thomas Farley had apologized and resigned on Thursday for sending the remains of 11 victims to be cremated in 2017. “I profoundly regret making this decision without consulting the family members of the victims and I extend my deepest apologies for the pain this will cause them,” he said.

But, it seems the order was never fulfilled, and the remains were simply being kept at the medical examiner’s office. Kenney said he was “relieved” but “also very sorry for the needless pain that this ordeal has caused the Africa family.” In 1985, an occupied rowhome in West Philadelphia was bombed during a police assault on a Black separatist group called MOVE—resulting in the deaths of six adults and five children.