A property owner in Reading, Pennsylvania made a disturbing discovery on their own land Friday: what appeared to be human remains, found at a home they had only recently purchased. Police were called out for what started as a routine security check and ended up opening an active death investigation.
According to NBC10 Philadelphia, the Reading Police Department dispatched officers to the 500 block of South 6th Street for a security check at the property, where the owner described finding remains that appeared to be human. Both the department's Patrol Division and its Criminal Investigations Division responded to the scene, and police requested assistance from the Berks County Coroner's Office. A deputy coroner confirmed the remains were human, according to officials cited in the same report.
Police said the investigation remains active, and that the incident appears to be isolated, posing no active threat to the public. Officials said more information will be released as it becomes available, and they're asking anyone with information to contact the Reading Police Department or Crime Alert Berks County.
A 2022 Fatal Shooting
A fatal shooting occurred on the 500 block of North 6th Street on April 17, 2022. The remains were found on South 6th Street, while the shooting occurred on North 6th Street.
Pennsylvania law offers one explanation for how a new owner could end up facing a shock like this without warning. Under the Pennsylvania Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law, and reinforced by the 2014 state Supreme Court ruling in Milliken v. Jacono, sellers are not legally required to disclose deaths, homicides, or suicides tied to a property, because psychological stigmas aren't classified as physical material defects, according to Timoney Knox LLP. That buyer-beware standard means a property's darkest history can stay hidden from a purchase agreement entirely.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Berks County
Friday's discovery adds to a string of unsettling finds across the county in recent years. In April 2025, federal investigators found the skeletal remains of an unidentified adult woman in a wooded area of neighboring Cumru Township, with forensic analysts estimating the remains had been there for three to five years, according to NamUs; that case remains unresolved in the national database for missing and unidentified persons. Then in December 2025, human remains turned up near a golf course in the county's Flying Hills community, prompting the U.S. Marshals Service to run multi-agency testing to see whether they were connected to a local missing-person case, as reported by CBS Philadelphia.
The county's homicide numbers underscore why cases like these draw such close scrutiny. Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams reported in January that the county logged 15 homicides in 2025, with 12 of them happening within the city of Reading itself, according to BerksWeekly. Local officials have pointed to targeted gun-violence suppression efforts as a factor in the city's year-to-year crime fluctuations.
Investigation Capacity and How to Help
Death investigations in Reading fall to the Criminal Investigations Division of a police department that employs 168 sworn officers across its Patrol, Criminal Investigations, Services, and Headquarters divisions, per ReadingPA.gov. That structure is now being put to use as detectives work to determine how the remains ended up at the South 6th Street property and identify who they belong to.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Reading Police Department at (610) 655-6116 or to reach out to Crime Alert Berks County, which offers anonymous tips and cash rewards up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest. Tips can be submitted by phone, by texting ALERTBERKS followed by the tip to 847411, or through the ALERTBERKS mobile app, according to Crime Alert Berks County.
