PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Additional human remains from the 1985 police bombing of the headquarters of a Black liberation group in Philadelphia have been found at the University of Pennsylvania.

The remains are believed to be those of 12-year-old Delisha Africa, one of five children and six adults killed in a fire that spread to dozens of row houses after police bombed the headquarters of the MOVE organization.

The remains were discovered during a comprehensive inventory the Penn Museum conducted to prepare thousands of artifacts, some more than a century old, to be moved to upgraded storage facilities.

In 2021, university officials acknowledged that: bones were left in the school of at least one bombing victim after assisting in the forensic identification process following the bombing. Shortly thereafter, the city notified family members that a box of remains had been found, which was stored in the coroner’s office after autopsies were completed.

The museum said that it was not known how the remains found this week were separated from the others and that it immediately informed the child’s family upon this discovery.

“We are committed to full transparency regarding any new evidence that may emerge,” the Penn Museum said in a statement. on its website. “Confronting our institutional history requires an ever-evolving examination of how we can uphold museum practices to the highest ethical standards. “Centering human dignity and the wishes of descendant communities guides the current treatment of human remains in the custody of the Penn Museum.”

Led by founder John Africa, MOVE members practiced a lifestyle that shunned modern conveniences, preached equal rights for animals, and rejected government authority. The group has clashed with police and many of its practices have drawn complaints from neighbors.

Trying to remove its members from the center, the police used a helicopter to drop a bomb on the house on May 13, 1985. More than 60 homes in the neighborhood burned when emergency personnel were told to stand down.

A 1986 commission report described the decision to bomb an occupied row of houses as “unreasonable”. A $1.5 million judgment was awarded in a 1996 lawsuit against MOVE survivors.