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LCCC representatives volunteer at St. Vincent dePaul Kitchen

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Rinehimer School Bus Co. employees recognized

<p>On the first Monday of fall, beneath cloudy skies, the sun began to shine on four Luzerne County unsolved cases.</p><p>After decades of no new developments, four cold cases had the heat turned up with the exhumation of the remains of unknown victims.</p><p>Three sets of remains were removed from graves at Maple Hill Cemetery in Hanover Township. A fourth, perhaps the one with the most emotion attached, was that of a newborn baby found Aug. 6, 1980, at the West Side Landfill in Larksville.</p><p>The remains of &#8220;Baby Boy&#8221; were exhumed from a remote corner near a wooded area in St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery in Courtdale.</p><p>There are two goals here: to identify the bodies so the victims&#8217; families can finally know what happened to their loved ones, and to determine who is responsible for the deaths.</p><p>Even with new technology available today, it will be difficult, at best, to build these cases. It&#8217;s even possible the persons responsible for the deaths are now deceased.</p><p>As investigators at the two cemeteries Monday said, the effort is worth the risk.</p><p>The four human beings whose remains were exhumed have been known only by their case affiliations:</p><p>&#8226; Interstate 81 Jane Doe &#8212; 1970</p><p>&#8226; Interstate 80 Jane Doe &#8212; 1973</p><p>&#8226; Bear Creek John Doe &#8212; 1979</p><p>&#8226; Baby Boy John Doe &#8212; 1980.</p><p>Those names are as impersonal as you can get. These are four people who ended up dead at the hands of anonymous killers who, as was pointed out Monday, may still be in the community. Cpl. Thomas McAndrew, of Troop N Pennsylvania State Police in Hazleton, said there are some 40,000 unidentified bodies in the U.S. and some 500 unsolved homicides in Pennsylvania.</p><p>That&#8217;s a staggering amount. Just like the four exhumed here, those 40,000 human beings are buried in unmarked graves in remote sections of cemeteries. They are seldom recognized and almost never visited. Their families struggle with not having the closure they deserve.</p><p><ins>Dr. Erin Kimmerle, the forensic anthropologist from the University of South Florida, and her team, assisted by local state police and other investigators, said the remains of the four victims will be &#8220;cleaned and processed.&#8221; The team will perform countless tests to try to identify who these people are and how they died.</ins></p><p><ins>Kimmerle intends to create facial reconstructions of the adult victims. The entire process will take several months to one year to complete, she said.</ins></p><p>As members of the media watched the exhumations proceed, you couldn&#8217;t help but notice the &#8220;neighborhood&#8221; where the graves sit. Most of the graves nearby are well taken care of and marked with beautiful granite stones. Many have inscriptions, denoting &#8220;Dear Brother&#8221; or &#8220;Beloved Daughter.&#8221; There are flowers and flags adorning the graves, evidence of recent visitations.</p><p>Bereaved families are able to visit their loved ones&#8217; graves to pause, reflect or pray.</p><p>Not so with the graves of these four unknown victims. It&#8217;s been 46 years, 43 years, 37 years and 36 years since they went missing and their families still await news of what happened.</p><p>&#8220;I think about them not knowing what happened to their loved ones,&#8221; Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said at Maple Hill. &#8220;It may be difficult to prosecute these cases, but we are willing to take that risk.&#8221;</p><p>McAndrew, wearing a T-shirt and displaying a look of dogged determination, said if the perpetrators can&#8217;t be found or if they are deceased, the effort being put forth still will be well worth it if the bodies can be identified.</p><p><ins>Several years ago, a letter appeared in the Times Leader from a person who expressed hope that the name of the &#8220;discarded infant&#8221; at the West Side Landfill would be identified.</ins></p><p><ins>&#8220;I can&#8217;t understand why anyone would discard of an innocent child in such heartless fashion, but I hope that the person(s) responsible for the case either comes forward or is identified through the investigative process,&#8221; the person wrote. &#8220;We will never know what this child would have done in life, but we can keep his memory alive in the hope that this story will someday conclude with peace, justice and dignity.&#8221;</ins></p><p>Records at the now-defunct landfill authority showed it received 94 truckloads of garbage on Aug. 6, 1980, the day a bulldozer operator noticed what looked like a toy doll mixed in with the day&#8217;s garbage.</p><p>Over the years, the grave of &#8220;Baby Boy&#8221; has been marked with a Christmas stocking, plastic flowers, a statue of the Blessed Mother and two vials used for fresh flowers &#8212; indications that someone cares.</p><p><ins>As Kimmerle recently said, &#8220;Any kind of peace is a gift.&#8221;</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Feet to the Fire Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Oboyle_Bill-2-1-13.jpg</photo0><caption0>Feet to the Fire Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL0922716FeetToTheFire-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crews prepare to exhume the body of &#8216;Baby Boy&#8217; at St. Anthony&#8217;s Cemetery in Courtdale on Monday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL0922716FeetToTheFire-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Crews prepare to exhume the body of &#8216;Baby Boy&#8217; at St. Anthony&#8217;s Cemetery in Courtdale on Monday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle, or email boboyle@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Feet to the Fire: Exhumation of remains may give victims’ families closure, peace