Man Surrenders; 7 Bodies in Philadelphia Apartment

PHILADELPHIA —  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.

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.

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.

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.