YDR Insider

Upper Darby Police Supt. Michael Chitwood said Saturday morning that police will file homicide charges against Ummad Rushdi next week regardless of whether they find the body of 7-month-old Hamza Ali.

“We’re going to upgrade the charges against Ummad to murder next week probably,” Chitwood said. “I don’t care if we have a body or not, we’re still going to charge him. Based on our investigation, we’ve got enough, we’ve got enough probable cause to charge him.”

Chitwood did not specify what evidence police have recovered, but said they found some evidence in Columbia, not far from where investigators believe Ummad Rushdi got his brother’s Lincoln Continental stuck in the mud.

“We did a thorough search and we also had cadaver dogs, bloodhounds, and a search and rescue team… and they coordinated a grid search,” Chitwood said. “During the course of the search, we located certain evidence that would indicate the baby could have possibly been put in the weeds, bushes, back in that area about 100, 125 yards from the vehicle.”

Chitwood said the cadaver dogs “hit on” an area in the weeds and bushes, but police didn’t find the body.

“But the evidence we found would indicate that possibly the baby could have been there,” Chitwood said. “We then believe that somebody, obviously Ummad (Rushdi) moved the body because he’s the one who put it there.”

Chitwood said police from his department have stopped the search for baby Hamza this weekend, and they will likely resume on Monday. Columbia police said they were not searching for baby Hamza Saturday.

Read more about the Ummad Rushdi baby kidnapping case.

–BRANDIE KESSLER, Daily Record/Sunday News

Note: www.ydr.com is not updating as of 11 a.m. Saturday, so updates to the Rushdi case are being posted here until the website comes back up. –Scott Blanchard, Sunday editor