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Abandoned Casket With Human Remains Found In Brooklyn

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Police are investigating a possible grave robbery in Brooklyn.

A person found an abandoned casket filled with skeletal human remains and garbage on Pilling Street adjacent to a series of cemeteries on Tuesday.

As 1010 WINS' Holli Haerr reported, people who work across the street from the Most Holy Trinity Cemetery said people dump items there all the time. But in this case, they were disturbed to see a broken casket outside the cemetery fence Tuesday morning.

"There was bones and the clothing and the gloves, and everything was there. It was not a pretty sight," said one woman.

CBS2 asked another cemetery in that area, Evergreens Cemetery, if they believed the casket came from their grounds, but the cemetery had no comment.

"I saw them taking out a quilt and it looked like what's left of body remains," Baseer Tariq, who works nearby, told CBS2's Cindy Hsu. "(When you heard that's what it was in the casket, what's going through your head?) What kind of person would do that? Just leave a casket on the side of the road."

Police believe the casket was dug up from the cemetery.

But Basit Tariq, who also said people dump items from home renovations in the area all the time, has his own theory.

"They dug up some house and they found a casket inside and they didn't want to report it and they just dumped it here," he said.

"Back in the old times, I know that people bury people at home in their backyards," Lillian Toscana said. "Maybe somebody bought a new house, they might have encountered the casket, took it out and dumped it because they don't want it in their home."

Abandoned Casket With Human Remains Found In Brooklyn

The Medical Examiner's office confirmed the skeletal remains were human bones from a hand and foot. Now, they're working with police to figure out who put the casket there.

Toscana and others who work in the area said the act was disrespectful.

"It's not a good thing," she said. "It's not where it's supposed to be. I mean, we have to have respect for people's lives."

One worker at Evergreens Cemetery told Hsu he's been working there for 30 years and has never seen anything quite like this.

The investigation into the incident continues.

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