The cremated remains of 9 people who were killed in the 1978 Jonestown Massacre in Guyana, were discovered inside a former funeral home in Delaware Wednesday, state officials said, CBS News has learned.
An excavation at the Minus Funeral Home was conducted by the Dover Police Department together with members of the Delaware Division of Forensic Science, after 38 containers were discovered inside the building, a police department news release issued on Thursday stated.
Out of all the remains cremated between 1970 and 1990s, 33 were clearly marked while 5 are yet to be identified, cops said. Nine remains were linked to the victims of the Jonestown mass suicide, which is said to have left 918 people dead after Rev. Jim Jones' devotees drank cyanide-laced punch in Nov. 18, 1978.
All remains on the site were reportedly taken into possession by the Division of Forensic Science for further identification.
The Delaware funeral home has been out of business since 2012, and the land is now owned by a bank, Cpl. Mark Hoffman, public information officer for the Dover Police Department, told Los Angeles Times.
The 38 sets of remains on the property were just recently discovered by a bank employee, prompting an investigation.
Most of the massacre victims' bodies were reportedly flown back into the U.S. through the Dover Air Force Base. However, it was not clear how the ashes got to the funeral home.
"The assumption is that they were probably contracted out as unclaimed remains, but there's no information to validate that yet," Hoffman explained.
Authorities declined to release the identities of the 9 Jonestown Massacre victims found in Delaware, although the urns containing the remains of the cult members were clearly marked and death certificates were also found on the site, enabling cross-referencing.
The suicide, was orchestrated by Rev. Jim Jones - the leader of the California cult known as the People Temple Agricultural Project.
In the mid 1970s, he headed a mass migration to Guyana where the Jonestown Massacre took place, Telegraph has learned.
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