LAUREL, Md. - Investigators searched a former District facility for mentally retarded adults in Anne Arundel County on Wednesday, looking for remains, ABC 7 News has learned.

None was found.

Investigators left the former Forest Haven facility about 11 a.m.

Earlier Wednesday, NewsChopper 7 captured pictures of MPD canine units on the scene Wednesday, assisting the D.C. Office of Property Management's Protective Services division.

The OPM is responsible for District buildings, including those no longer in use.


ABC 7 News received pictures Monday from a source that appeared to show graves in a cellar of Forest Haven. ABC 7 News contacted Anne Arundel County and D.C. police Tuesday about the pictures.

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The Protective Services division of the District's Office of Property Management responded to the scene between 10 and 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Authorities say MPD cadaver dogs showed interest in one pile of dirt which was then dug up. No remains were found.

The former asylum was notorious for its poor conditions and alleged patient abuse. The facility for mentally retarded adults was open from 1925 until it was closed by a federal lawsuit in 1991.

D.C. officials were interested in this discovery because in the past bodies of former patients were found in shallow graves on the abandoned site.

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