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Man Surrenders; 7 Bodies in Philadelphia Apartment

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Associated Press

A man wanted by police after the discovery of seven bodies inside his apartment turned himself in Sunday, ending a seven-day manhunt, police said.

Harrison (Marty) Graham, accompanied by his mother, Lillian Graham, was waiting for police on a street corner about 10 blocks from his apartment, Capt. Robert Grasso said. He was arrested without incident.

“He had grown a beard to throw off people who were looking for him,” Lt. David Reid said. Both Graham, 29, and his mother were taken to police headquarters for questioning.

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Graham was expected to be arraigned on charges of corpse abuse. Additional charges could be filed as a result of the questioning, Reid said.

Graham was last seen a week ago when his landlord’s son asked him to move from the fetid apartment, a reputed drug haven. Shortly afterward, the bodies were unearthed from a jumble of mattresses and heaps of trash, and a warrant was issued for Graham’s arrest on seven counts of abuse of a corpse.

Six of the bodies were of black females and two of them were found to have been strangled, authorities said.

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Only one body--that of strangulation victim Mary Jeter Mathis, a 36-year-old drug addict and mother of five--has been identified, police said.

On Friday, police discovered a head and torso buried in a shallow grave in the basement of a house three doors from Graham’s row house.

Police suspected the remains might match the leg, foot and hand bones of the seventh body, which was found on Graham’s roof.

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Police turned up no other remains during an extensive weekend search of the north Philadelphia neighborhood.

The district attorney’s office rejected a police warrant Wednesday charging Graham with murder, saying it needed more information from police and the medical examiner’s office.

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