Bodies Exhumed in Plymouth Township in Hopes of Solving Cold Cases

Authorities hope the exhumations of five bodies will help close decades-old cold homicide cases.

The exhumations took place at United Memorial Gardens cemetery in Plymouth, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press report.

Authorities hope to collect DNA from the bodies to close cases that date back to the 1980s.

One of them involved the discovery of an unidentified female’s body in an incinerator dumping yard at 1550 Harper in Detroit in February 1987. She had been stabbed multiple times.

Police have released a sketch of the woman, who had a scar that indicated she may have given birth about a year before her death, WXYZ, Channel 7, reports.

Police estimate she was between the ages of 15-25, was 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 114 pounds. Her hair was highlighted blonde with reddish tints, and she had light brown or hazel eyes. When her body was discovered, she was wearing two rings.

Three of the four bodies exhumed Monday were believed to be juveniles. On Oct. 31, the remains of a woman whose body was found in the 1980s was exhumed, Michigan State Police Detective Sarah Krebs said. The cause of death was not determined at the time.

In another case, a juvenile female was reported missing in the late 1980s, but has not been found. Police want to see if her DNA matches that of an unidentified female buried at the cemetery.

Another case involves an unknown white female who died of a drug overdose in 1976. She told people at a party in Highland Park that her name was “Bill” and that she had run away from a youth home in Ohio.

The white female had shoulder-length brown hair and bluish-green eyes. She was believed to be 15-25 years old.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children funded the exhumations. The Michigan State Police and FBI are assisting in the investigation.

“It is our hope that the result of these efforts will bring closure to the families of these victims,” Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody said in a statement.

The DNA evidence will be analyzed at the University of North Texas.

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Photo: Michigan State Police sketch of woman whose body was found in an incinerator dump site in Detroit in February 1987.