Police investigate 3 bodies found around Southeast DC apartment using cadaver dogs, DNA

WASHINGTON - D.C. police knocked down a wall inside a building on Wayne Place Southeast, D.C. as they continued their search for more human remains after three sets were found last week.

Three sets of human remains, all female, have been found in a shallow grave and a crawl space since last Wednesday. But so far, none have been identified.

D.C. police used a number of tools, including a chainsaw to knock down a wall in the basement of 111 Wayne Place Southeast.

There's an apartment building adjacent to the building where the remains of a female were found last Wednesday. The officers took down the wall, apparently after a cadaver dog indicated there may be something behind it.

Three dogs worked the neighborhood on Tuesday, including two from Fairfax County, and one from the D.C. Fire Department.

Their handlers took them into a wooded area across the street, as well as other buildings in the 100 block of Wayne Place.

On Monday, the Chief Medical Examiner said it was going to take some time to determine the "ages, ancestry and stature" of the women.

FOX 5 obtained photographs of the remains discovered in the crawl space. The man who discovered them said there were no personal effects and no clothing.

One way the medical examiner said he would try to identify the remains is through a department of justice program called "Namus," a web-based database devoted to matching unidentified remains with missing people.

Retired D.C. homicide investigator Jim Trainum says it is a searchable database, but there could be some roadblocks ahead to identify the bodies found on Wayne Place.

"The problem is going to be is they are going to have to track down the records and if these are old cases, those records may not be there. Plus you have to look at other jurisdictions. Prince George's County, counties in Virginia because who knows where those bodies came from and who knows how long they have been there at this point."

Trainum says though, that Namus has had its share of successes.

"Hopefully, in the processing of the crime scene, they will have some kind of time frame on when those bodies were placed there."