More fetal remains linked to the deceased abortion Dr. Ulrich Klopfer were found Wednesday inside one of his cars stored in a lot in south suburban Dolton, authorities said.
Will County Sheriff’s Office detectives found fewer than 100 additional fetal remains about 10 a.m. in the trunk of one of eight cars that Klopfer had stored in the gated lot outside of a Dolton business, according to the sheriff’s office. The cars had been stored here for more than six years.
The remains were stored in five plastic bags and one box, according to the sheriff’s office. A more thorough examination of their contents was needed to tell exactly how many remains were found.
The discovery comes almost a month after 2,245 fetal remains were found in the garage of Klopfer’s home in Will County. His family found them while going through his personal property after he died Sept. 3, according to the sheriff’s office.
The fetuses were placed in plastic bags with a preservative called Formalin and filled 70 cardboard boxes that were mixed among “hundreds and hundreds” of other boxes, the sheriff’s office said at the time.
Based on the boxes’ labels, investigators believe the abortions were performed between 2000 and 2002 in Indiana, where Klopfer had clinics in Gary, Fort Wayne and South Bend, according to the sheriff’s office.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said last week that the fetal remains had been returned to Indiana, where the newly found remains will also be taken.
“We have dispatched investigators to Illinois to gather facts, but we anticipate simply adding these remains into the protocol we have already set up for dealing with these disturbing circumstances,” Hill said in a press release Wednesday.
Indiana authorities on Sept. 19 searched two of the shuttered abortion clinics once operated by Klopfer. Officials in South Bend said nothing was found. Fort Wayne officials at the time would not say what, if anything, was found inside that former clinic.
The home in Will County where Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, who died Sept. 3, kept thousands of preserved fetuses.
Stefano Esposito/Sun-Times
Contributing: Associated Press
