Niagara Falls Police investigate human remains found in a Orleans Ave. homes basement

The Niagara Falls Police Department is actively investigating human remains found in the basement of an Orleans Avenue home in March.
Author: Olivia Beilein
Published: 12:52 PM EDT May 6, 2025
Updated: 5:43 PM EDT May 6, 2025
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — The Niagara Falls Police Department say they are investigating human remains found in the basement of an Orleans Avenue home last month.

Detectives in both the Crime Scene and Criminal Investigation Departments had responded to the home on March 28 and discovered the human remains boarded up under the basement stairs. Niagara Falls Police says a former resident of the home, Richard Fox, is a person of interest in their investigation.

Fox is facing charges in two deaths in Erie County. Fox was recently indicted by an Erie County Grand Jury for the murders of Cassandra Watson and Marquita Mull.

Both women went missing from the City of Buffalo, about 17-18 years apart from each other.

The remains were collected and transferred to the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. Due to the condition of the remains, an identity and cause of death remain under investigation.

On March 28, neighbors said they watched as investigators went in and out of the home. Antonnio told 2 on Your Side, they brought cadaver dogs in. He said, “when the dogs were out here, they wouldn’t stop scratching the basement. They wouldn’t stop.”Thomas Owens has lived on Orleans Avenue for five years. He lives right across the street from where police said they found the remains. He told 2 On Your Side the news was shocking to hear.

“It was chilling. Especially knowing I done cleaned up over there in the yard before and just not knowing what was over there at the time and it’s just different just different nothing I experienced in my life,” Owens said.

Owens also told 2 On Your Side, he spoke to Richard Fox before and that he lived, at one point, in the upstairs apartment. “Normal, ordinary working guy. He didn’t seem strange or anything. We had short conversations. You would have never knew.”

Anyone who may have information on Fox or any of his acquaintances is asked to contact the Niagara Falls Police department at (716)-286-4553 or (716)-286-4711.

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