Philadelphia police investigating the mysterious disappearance of beauty queen Kada Scott recovered human remains — believed to be the missing 23-year-old — in a shallow grave behind an abandoned school.
Officials made the gruesome discovery on the grounds of the shuttered Ada H. Lewis Middle School in the East Germantown neighborhood Saturday morning after a “very specific” anonymous tip was made the night before, according to ABC News
“While conducting a search of the property, investigators discovered a shallow grave and recovered human remains believed to be those of Kada Scott,” Philadelphia police told the outlet.
“This is a heartbreaking development, and our thoughts are with Kada’s family and loved ones during this extremely difficult time. The Philadelphia Police Department remains committed to uncovering the truth and ensuring that justice is served.”
Friday’s tip brought police to the property that includes a large parking lot and a heavily wooded area that separates the old middle school, which closed in 2008, from the still-open Parkway Northwest High School.
Investigators sifted through the brush and cleared away some debris to uncover fresh dirt and a “strange smell.”
“Sign number one, fresh dirt under a board,” one man who was a part of the discovery told NBC10 Philadelphia. “So we begin to try to dig with our hands, and there’s maggots there under the ground, and there’s a strange smell coming from the ground.”
Police have not confirmed the remains to be Scott’s as they await an official ruling from the medical examiner’s office.
Scott, who represented Philadelphia Township in this year’s Miss Pennsylvania USA Beauty Pageant, vanished shortly after leaving her job at The Terrace assisted living facility in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood at around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 4.
The shuttered school’s campus is two and a half miles southeast of where Scott worked.
She is believed to have met up with “an individual” after leaving the facility before going radio silent.
An earlier tip led police to the abandoned school on Wednesday, where they found a 1999 Toyota Camry, a car Scott was thought to have been in the night she disappeared.
The front of the car had sustained heavy damage and items belonging to Scott, including her phone case and her debit card, were found near the vehicle.
Police arrested 21-year-old Keon King last week and charged him with kidnapping for ransom, false imprisonment, stalking, recklessly endangering another person and tampering with evidence, according to court records viewed by The Post.
He has not been charged in Scott’s death as of Sunday morning.
King had faced kidnapping charges from a January incident where he allegedly stalked a woman before abducting her from her home and assaulting her in his car.
A portion of the incident was recorded and posted to TikTok after his arrest on Tuesday.
The charges were withdrawn in May after his victim failed to appear in court on multiple occasions.
They were refiled on Tuesday following King’s arrest in Scott’s disappearance.
Prosecutors with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office owned up to their mistake of letting the charges be withdrawn from the initial case.
“We could have done better in that. A really sophisticated approach to the case would have been to try to put it all in with video evidence,” District Attorney Larry Krasner told WPVI.
King being out on bail was a reason the woman was afraid of attending court in the first place.
“The reason they had to worry he was going to come out of the same door they went in the courthouse right after they testified against him is because he was on bail,” Krasner said.
King was held on a $200,000 bail in the first case. He posted 10% of the bail and was released.
He is currently being held on a $2.5 million bail for King’s kidnapping.
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