Advertisement

Three MOVE children killed in the 1985 rowhouse fire...

PHILADELPHIA -- Three MOVE children killed in the 1985 rowhouse fire were buried Wednesday, two days after it was announced they had already been buried, the Philadelphia Inquirer said today.

Because of a mixup in the medical examiner's office, the remains buried Monday were those of other MOVE members whose bodies had also been stored in a refrigerator in the medical examiner's office since a fire May 13, 1985 killed 11 MOVE members and their children.

Advertisement

The Inquirer said morgue attendants earlier this week mistakenly gave the remains of other MOVE members to a funeral home in place of those of the children, Tomasa Africa, 9, Phil Phillips Africa and Delicia Orr Africa, both 12.

All members of the anti-establishment group take the surname Africa, after MOVE's founder John Africa.

The mistake in the burials was realized when attendants discovered the childrens' bones on three trays in a refrigerator where they had been moved in preparation for their pickup by the funeral home, the Inquirer said.

The fatal fire broke out last year after police dropped a bomb on the roof of MOVE's fortified rowhouse in West Philadelphia in an attempt to flush the group from its home. The fire spread to 60 other homes, destroying a neighborhood.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines