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'We Don't Trust Them': Africa Family Responds After Mayor Kenney's Office Says MOVE Bombing Victims' Remains Found

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney says MOVE bombing remains ordered to be cremated actually have not been destroyed. The Africa family told Eyewitness News on Saturday they still can't trust the city.

It's been 36 years since the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia. Five children and six adults died. But now, a new controversy is stirring about how the remains of several family members were handled in the decades since.

"We have the remains. We cremated them, disposed them. Oh, I found them," Janine Africa said.

Africa's son was one of the 11 killed in the 1985 MOVE bombing that City Council voted to apologize for last year. At a memorial for MOVE victims at Cobbs Creek Park on Saturday, Africa says the City of Philadelphia continues to disappoint them.

"Nobody is talking to us," she said. "It really just confirms what we've been telling y'all all along why we don't trust them."

The situation intensified this week after Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Tom Farley resigned after informing city leaders he authorized the cremation and disposal of some MOVE victims remains only for the mayor's office to release a statement Friday saying the remains actually had not been destroyed and were found in the medical examiner's office.

"We've never gotten no apology from Jim Kenney," Consuewella Africa said. "Has he spoken to you? He hasn't spoken to me. We are the mothers. No one ever contacted us."

Janine Africa says this is the last thing their group expected to come up 36 years after the bombing. The mayor's statement said the medical examiner's office spoke with members of the Africa family, but they say it's not that simple.

"The bombing wasn't enough? You defiled the remains and now, you do this back-and-forth about the remains and still never, never calling any of the mothers," she said.

CBS3 reached out to the health department for additional comment. They referred to the mayor's statement and that they do not know how to contact Farley now that he no longer works there.

The Africa family says they want the remains of their family members back so they can honor them properly.

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