Police have identified human remains that were found behind an abandoned school on Saturday as belonging to a Philadelphia woman who has been missing for weeks.
Authorities have been searching for Kada Scott, 23, since she disappeared on the night of Oct. 3.
Her remains were discovered in a shallow grave in a wooded area behind Ada H. Lewis Middle School. Deputy Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department John Stanford told NBC10 that they appeared to be about a week old.
Her body was identified using DNA evidence, news reports said. A cause of death has not yet been determined.
Police had been searching the area since Friday after getting an anonymous tip. They had earlier found Scott’s debit card and phone case behind the school.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the tipster told police that they should look along an old wooden fence, writing “GO BACK YOU MISSED HER.”
Keon King, 21, has been charged with kidnapping Scott. Police believe Scott had been texting King and had left her job to meet up with him that night before she disappeared.
Police said location data on Scott and King’s phones showed he was the last person to be in touch with her and that their devices at least had been in proximity to each other before her phone was turned off.
Surveillance footage police obtained showed King pulling into the parking lot of a recreation center near the school in a Hyundai Accent that had been reported stolen. He left it there for two days before retrieving it.
The car was set on fire elsewhere the next day. King is expected to be charged with arson, the Inquirer reported.
“There are no words that I can employ to remove the unimaginable pain and turmoil that the family of Kada Scott is experiencing with the tragic loss of their beloved daughter, sister and loved one,” Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker said in a statement.
Anyone with information on Scott’s disappearance Philadelphia Police Department at 215-686-8477.
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