Human remains discovered during search for missing Philadelphia woman Kada Scott

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A desperate search for a missing Philadelphia woman has taken a heartbreaking turn after human remains were located Saturday.

The grim discovery was made behind an abandoned school near Awbury Arboretum, where police had been scouring the area for 23-year-old Kada Scott, missing since October 4.

Investigators returned to the site around 10 a.m. Saturday after receiving a “very specific” anonymous tip overnight, according to First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford.

The remains, believed to be those of a female, were found buried in a shallow grave in a heavily wooded section of the property, WPVI reported.

By late afternoon, they had been removed from the scene and turned over to the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office to confirm the person’s identity. Stanford said police have been in contact with Scott’s family.

“We have been in communication with her family as to this process and in the fact that we have recovered a human being,” he said.

Scott was last seen October 4 clocking in for her overnight shift at an assisted living facility in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood. Her family expected her to be home the next morning. But she never made it.

Investigators say she was not at work for very long that night before she left the facility. However, there were no surveillance cameras in the parking lot, they said.

When Scott did not return home that morning, her parents called the senior living facility and got what they called “conflicting reports” about her whereabouts.

Her parents met police in the parking lot where they found her car. Her phone, iPad, keys, and other belongings were not inside the vehicle, WPVI reported.

On Wednesday, police arrested 21-year-old Keon King in connection with Scott’s abduction. He also faces another kidnapping charge in what investigators described as a disturbing “pattern.”

“Mr. King is the last person, we believe, to be in contact with her and that he was in contact with her when she went offline,” Assistant District Attorney Ashley Toczylowski said at a press conference earlier this week.

Investigators are still working to determine how King and Scott knew each other, though they believe the two had crossed paths in the days leading up to her disappearance.

Before she vanished, Scott had reportedly told people she was being harassed, though it remains unclear if King was the person she was referring to. King is being held on $2.5 million bail.

As the search for Scott continued through the week and tips flooded in, investigators were led to the Awbury Arboretum in East Germantown October 10.

Police searched the 55-acre property believed to be on of the last places her phone pinged before it was deactivated. But no evidence was uncovered in the search.

Then on October 15, investigators found a car they believe is connected to the disappearance: a 1999 metallic gold Toyota Camry with heavy front-end damage and tinted windows.

The vehicle was found in the parking lot of the Gypsy Lane Condos in East Falls after a tip came in around 3:10 p.m. It matched the description and license plate number, MSX0797, released earlier in the day. Sources told reporters the car belonged to King, whose family lives nearby.

“We believe she may have been in that vehicle,” Toczylowski said.

Surveillance footage shows the driver arriving and leaving the property within about 35 minutes, though police haven’t confirmed who was behind the wheel. Police say the vehicle was seen in several parts of the city before it was found Wednesday.

Hours before the car’s discovery, another tip led police to search Ada H. Lewis Middle School, an abandoned building near the Awbury Arboretum.

There, investigators uncovered key physical evidence during the search — including Scott’s debit card and a phone case, WPVI reported.

During a press conference Friday, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner addressed King’s arrest and additional charges he faces in what prosecutors call a similar case from earlier this year — one in which another woman was allegedly kidnapped and strangled but survived.

Those charges were dropped when the victim didn’t show up in court, but prosecutors plan to refile them.

In that case, prosecutors said King “threw [the victim] in her car, assaulted her and eventually let her out.”

Krasner admitted Friday that his office should have handled that case differently.

“We could have done better in that,” he said. “A really sophisticated approach to the case would have been to try to put it all in with video evidence.”

Part of that incident was captured in a viral video showing King peering through and knocking on windows as someone inside yelled for help and told others to call police. Krasner said the victim feared testifying because King was out on bail.

“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,” said Krasner.

King posted 10 percent of a $200,000 bail in that kidnapping arrest.

When asked why prosecutors didn’t push for higher bail, Krasner said appealing overnight can be difficult.

“You have the option of trying to do what is often a midnight or three o’clock in the morning telephonic appeal to a municipal court judge,” he said. “The unfortunate reality of this is that some, but not all of these judges, don’t want you calling them in the middle of the night. And if you do, they lower the bail. They don’t raise it, they don’t leave it. They lower it. So it is always a complex, strategic decision.”

But Marty O’Rourke, spokesperson for the courts, sharply disputed the district attorney’s statements, calling them “appallingly disrespectful” and an attempt to “scapegoat” for his mishandling of the case.

The DA would know that court staff is “on call 24/7 and prepared at any hour to address emergency Court matters,” O’Rourke said.

“In light of this truth, the DA’s comments are appallingly disrespectful and a sad attempt on his part to find a scapegoat for his own failings on this matter,” he said.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker offered prayers and support to Scott’s family with a statement on Facebook.

“There are no words that I can employ to remove the unimaginable pain and turmoil that the family of Kada Scott is experiencing with the tragic loss of their beloved daughter, sister, and loved one,” she wrote. “The City of Philadelphia is here to support them in any way that we can. We will continue to stay by their side.”