Does anyone have any info on the the dead body/skeleton they found on the 2nd floor of the abandoned building on 16th and South. I just moved out of the building almost adjacent to it and I remember this summer that there was an awful smell emanating from that building. Alot of homeless druggies frequent the park next door and may have access to the building from the back.

I think that the last several posts in the "Crime in South Philly" thread deal with this issue. You may want to start there....

From the www.southphillyreview.com -

Skeleton found in house

A landscaper trimming trees spotted the remains inside a decrepit house on South Street.
By Lorraine Gennaro
November 3, 2005

A landscaper made a macabre discovery inside an abandoned home at 1542 South St. Tuesday morning.
While trimming trees at the roofline at about 9 a.m., the worker spotted the skeletal remains of a man inside a second-floor front room, said Detective Michael Fuss of South Detective Division. The worker went inside and then came out. He told coworkers and police were contacted, said the worker's boss, Jim Rogan, who also entered the site.

"It was a little bit of a surprise to see something like that. It looked like somebody was living in there," Rogan said.

Police believe the man may have been a squatter and had sought shelter sometime last winter. He had made a bed for himself with sofa cushions and was all bundled up - clothes intact, Detective Erin Hinnov said.

The man's skull was at the top of the makeshift bed with his right arm tucked under a blanket; one hip socket showed evidence of being gnawed, Hinnov said.

"You could tell the animals had dug and burrowed to get to him," she said.

The man was still wearing gray Nikes on his feet.

Next to the remains was an art book that had suffered some water damage. The book was open to a page with a photograph of a painting of a young woman sitting with her hands next to a skull, Hinnov said.

The remains were taken to the Medical Examiner's Office.

Wow! That's a creepy detail.

Why can't this house be restored/put to use somehow or knocked down? I guess that's a rhetorical question.