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Investigators have learned the identity of at least one of the individuals exhumed from a Hanover Township cemetery in 2016, the Luzerne County District Attorney’s office has announced.
The information will be released at a press conference Thursday at the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in West Hazleton.
On Sept. 26, 2016, representatives from the DA’s office and the Pennsylvania State Police exhumed three unidentified bodies at the Maple Hill Cemetery.
Previous reporting shows the bodies were a male gunshot victim found in Bear Creek Township in 1979; a female found doused in sulfuric acid in Black Creek Township in 1973; and a woman dumped naked on Interstate 81 in Rice Township in 1970.
A press release from the DA said only there was “positive identification of human remains,” and it does not make it clear if one or multiple bodies have been identified. A representative for the DA’s office said Wednesday that no further information would be available until Thursday.
Since the bodies were exhumed, investigators have been working at identifying them through forensic science.
In October 2016, only about a month after the exhumations, investigators released computer models and sketches of what they think the deceased once looked like.
At the time, the investigation led to new information. For instance, the male was estimated to be in his late teens. Previously, that victim was assumed to be middle-aged.
On the same day as these exhumations, investigators also exhumed the corpse of an infant boy in Courtdale. That body was dumped in the West Side landfill in 1980.
