Cops: Infant's casket was dumped on sidewalk by funeral home employee

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia police say a small casket containing embalmed remains of an infant that was found on a city sidewalk was dumped there by an employee of a New Jersey funeral home.

Capt. Malachi Jones said Thursday no charges have been filed yet as the department continues its investigation.

A group of people walking on a North Philadelphia street came across the casket around 9 p.m. Monday, reported CBS Philly.

"We didn't want to open it," witness Chris James told the station. "We didn't know what was inside. We didn't know if toxic waste could be in there, anything, we honestly thought it could be an animal."

James said the group contacted authorities, who opened the casket and found a black garbage bag with internal organ tissues belonging to a 3- to 4-month-old child. 

Initially, police thought the casket had been dug up from one of the nearby cemeteries, but an investigation revealed none had any disturbed graves. 

"It was basically a whodunit," Jones said.

On Tuesday, the New Jersey funeral home director reached out to Philadelphia police and said an employee had admitted to dumping the casket, saying he had no idea there were any remains inside.

The child's funeral was last Thursday, and just before the service, the latch on the coffin broke, Jones said. Funeral home workers transferred the child's body to a new casket, and the broken one was placed in a work car, he said. It's not clear why the organs - which were removed as part of an autopsy -were left in the broken casket.

Police have been in touch with the child's family, and they hope to reunite the organs with the baby's body. However, the child has already been buried, so the remains would have to be exhumed in order to bury the organs with the baby, Jones said.

"The family is quite upset," he said.

It's unclear why the employee dumped the casket, and why he did it in Philadelphia. The name of the funeral home hasn't been released.