Philadelphia Now Says MOVE Victims’ Remains Weren’t Cremated | Voice of America

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – A day after Philadelphia’s health commissioner was forced to resign over the cremation of partial remains belonging to victims of a 1985 bombing of the headquarters of a Black organization, the city now says those remains were never actually destroyed.
 
Mayor Jim Kenney released a statement late Friday saying that the remains of MOVE bombing victims thought to have been cremated in 2017, under orders from Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, were located at the medical examiner’s office that afternoon. Among the 11 slain when police bombed MOVE’s headquarters, causing a fire that spread to more than 60 row homes, were five children.
 
“I am relieved that these remains were found and not destroyed, however I am also very sorry for the needless pain that this ordeal has caused the Africa family,” Kenney said, adding that “many unanswered questions” surround the case — including why Farley’s order wasn’t obeyed.  
 
Kenney compelled Farley to resign Thursday, the 36th anniversary of the MOVE bombing, after consulting the victims’ family members. At the time, the mayor said Farley’s decision to order the cremation and disposal of the remains, without notifying the decedents’ family members, lacked empathy.
 
In a statement released by the mayor’s office Thursday, Farley said that he was told by the city’s medical examiner, Dr. Sam Gulino, that a box had been found containing materials related to MOVE bombing victims’…