Toddler, Friends Find Body in Blanket

A toddler and his friends made a gruesome discovery Thursday night in a North Philadelphia alley.

The three-year-old and 10 other children were playing in an alley between N. 11th and Warnock Streets around 6 p.m. when they discovered a body, duct-taped, and wrapped in a red sheet, said police.

"We didn't believe it at first, until an adult went back there," said Christine Casper, a mother of one of the children. "Then we noticed it was actually a dead body back there."

Casper says the body was bound at the head and waist with duct tape.

"All you could see was the feet hanging out," Taleiya Debeary, the 3-year-old's mother, said.

"We can't tell if it's male or female," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. "We can't tell race. We can't even tell the age."

Police say it's unclear how the person died and when he or she was dumped in the alley.

"It maked me feel like it's time for me to pack my family up and move us out of the neighborhood" said Casper.

There's no surveillance video in the area, so police are relying on the results of an autopsy and the help of the public in solving this crime.

Anyone with information is urged to call Philadelphia Police.

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