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Woman’s body found in South Philly basement

Police were serving an arrest warrant for a robbery when they found a young girl's body in a bathtub.

Philadelphia Police Department crime lab officers In North Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Police Department crime lab officers In North Philadelphia.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

The severely decomposed body of an unidentified young woman was found in the basement of a South Philadelphia home Thursday evening by sheriff’s deputies and Philadelphia police Special Victims Unit officers serving a warrant.

» UPDATE: Woman missing since September is found dead in the basement of a South Philadelphia row house

The discovery was made about 4:45 p.m. inside a twin at 2127 Porter St., where deputies had gone to serve an arrest warrant for a Madison Leidy issued in July 2018 in connection with a robbery, Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal said in an interview. The SVU had gone along because it received a tip earlier Thursday saying that a missing 18-year-old woman was inside the address.

Inside, officials found Leidy and four other people, Bilal said. All five were taken into custody while officials tried to sort out what happened.

The body, which had been in a bathtub in the basement, was to be taken by the Medical Examiner’s Office for identification, Bilal said. No other details were made available, and there was no word on whether the body found was that of the missing 18-year-old woman.

Police initially described the body as “partially dismembered," but later said that was not the case.