WASHINGTON: Skeletal remains found last month in and near an apartment complex here were those of three women, two of whom had been shot and the third who died of “inflicted trauma,” officials said.
The manner of death pointed to homicide, the city’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., said at a news conference Friday. Contractors working in the basement of an apartment building in the southeast quadrant of the US capital came upon the remains of one woman, including a skull and jawbone, on April 25.
Police with dogs then launched a wider search and found the other female remains, co-mingled in a shallow grave, in a nearby wooded area popular as a play site for local children.
Mitchell said the condition of the remains indicated the three had died at least a year ago. He said it was not yet possible to pinpoint their age range, size or ethnicity.
Police Chief Peter Newsham, speaking at the same news conference, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation would conduct DNA testing of the remains, which could take “several months.” Both men said it was too early to say whether the three deaths were related.
