Detroit police unearth unidentified bodies at Salem Township cemetery

Investigators hope to get DNA from remains to solve cases from 1980s, 1970s

SALEM TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Detroit police exhumed four unidentified bodies from a cemetery in Salem Township in hopes of solving two cases from the 1980s.

In a statement Monday, police said investigators were working burial sites at United Memorial Gardens, which is on Curtis Road right off M-14. It has a Plymouth Township mailing address but is located in Salem Township.

Two of the cases are:

  • Feb. 10, 1987, there was an unidentified female body found at the incinerator dumping yard at 1550 Harper. The case was ruled a homicide. The victim suffered multiple stab wounds. We have been unable to identify the victim.
  • A female juvenile that went missing in the 1980s. There was an unidentified female who was buried and may be a match due to the date of discovery and the physical size. The Jane Doe had no DNA obtained prior to burial.

Police said they will work to get DNA from the remains to "bring closure to the families" of the victims.

"One is a homicide victim from 1987. She was found on Harper Avenue. It's a white female. We don't have any records that she matches on missing persons," said a Michigan State Police investigator.

Investigators have a sketch of that victim along with a picture of the jewelry she was wearing. She had been stabbed to death.

The other body belongs to a young woman who died of a drug overdose in Highland Park in 1976 (view sketch here). A third body, which was exhumed a few weeks ago, was found in the Detroit River in the 1980s.

"We've had a really good success rate in getting DNA from skeletal remains, which all three cases here today are giving skeletal," said the state police investigator.

Police also found two other unidentified bodies which they were not searching for. They are working to identify those bodies, too.