Michigan police exhumed the bodies of five unidentified people from a cemetery on Monday to collect DNA to help solve their cases, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Four people were exhumed from the United Memorial Gardens cemetery on Monday, and the remains of one more person were dug up on Oct. 31, according to Michigan State Police Detective Trooper Sarah Krebs.
Three of the bodies are said to have belonged to minors, and the other two bodies - whose ages are unknown - were exhumed during the same process as the other three. The exhumations were paid for by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The bodies were buried in unmarked graves.
Krebs said all of the five unsolved cases were from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office.
One of the women died of multiple stab wounds and her body was dumped at the city dump's incinerator in 1987.
Another woman, possibly a minor, was buried in an unmarked grave in 1988. A teen disappeared in 1988, and her description possibly matches the body, MLive reported.
DNA testing was just becoming available when the unnamed women died. The case of Tommie Lee Andrews, who was convicted in Florida of rape in 1987, was the first time DNA was used to prosecute a defendant.
Since then, DNA technology has greatly improved and there are now comprehensive databases with samples from missing persons and convicted criminals.
There are currently 380 open cases in Michigan that have not yet been solved. Investigators are trying to have confirmed identities of two of the unidentified bodies this week.
"It is our hope that the result of these efforts, will bring closure to the families of these victims," the Detroit police department said.
