Pearl’s Family Told Remains Are Probably His

American officials notified the widow and parents of journalist Daniel Pearl on Friday that a torso and a severed head recovered from a shallow grave by Pakistani police were almost certainly his.

The remains were found in a garden nursery next to a small building where Pearl had apparently been held hostage on the outskirts of the southern port city of Karachi.

The police chief of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, said the body was significantly decomposed. “It cannot be identified,” he said.

To confirm the identity of the corpse, Pakistani police doctors and two U.S. officials took hair samples for DNA tests.

Mariane Pearl, who had attempted to reason with the kidnappers in a flurry of interviews before her husband’s killing was made known in a grisly videotape, received the news in Paris. She is due to deliver their first child any day.

Pakistani police were directed to the grave by a man who said he killed Pearl five to six days after abducting him Jan. 23 outside a restaurant, police sources said. The journalist expected to meet a militant there for an interview.

A senior police official said they had found the room where Pearl was believed to have been held hostage inside the nursery.

“There’s a small one-roomed building inside the compound, and that room has matched the room where the Daniel Pearl photographs were taken,” he said.

“We will conduct tests on the hair, skull and teeth to cement our belief.”

Manzoor Mughal, senior superintendent of police in charge of the investigation, said the face was not identifiable.

“I can’t say anything because his face is not clear. We have taken parts of the body for DNA tests.”