- Jun 21, 2006
- 2,816
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Taken from Digg:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/body_parts_of_a_man_woman_are.html
Pretty shocking.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/body_parts_of_a_man_woman_are.html
The trash bags sat undisturbed on a quiet street in Linden for days, blending into the background of a working-class neighborhood just a few feet from where residents walked their children to school.
When city workers responding to a complaint about illegal dumping finally shooed away the swarming flies and opened the bags yesterday morning, they made a grisly discovery: human body parts.
The remains of two people an unidentified man and women were found spread among two black plastic bags and four cloth laundry bags left near the corner of Cranford and Essex avenues.
"It was obviously a gruesome find, especially for our officers," Linden Police Chief Michael Boyle said.
Investigators were still trying to identify the bodies last night. The man was described as Hispanic, between 30 and 35 years old. The womans race and age were unknown, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said.
Police said they were considering the cases a homicide and were waiting for autopsy results to determine when and how the victims died.
Resident Carol Thomas-Garretson said she was the one who phoned police yesterday morning.
"I didnt call until I started noticing the flies," Thomas-Garretson told the Associated Press.
She said she spotted the bags by the curb by the side of her house on Thursday morning. When the normal garbage pick-up was suspended for Good Friday, Thomas-Garretson said she had planned to wait for Tuesday trash pick-up, but the flies were intense.
Residents said they were shocked when police put yellow crime scene tape around the trash bags and called in the county homicide task force. Investigators set up sheets to shield the scene from a small crowd of curious residents.
"I never thought not in Linden anyway that would happen," said Jarvis Chandler, who lives a couple doors down from where the bags were found.
Chandler, 17, said he passed the bags as he walked to and from Linden High School. Neighborhood children played nearby in the street. His father drove by the site, without suspecting anything was amiss.
"At night here, its like a ghost town," said his father, Ron Chandler, 51, a truck driver. "Thats why I like it. I guess whoever dumped here knew that too."
A couple of weeks ago, a rug had been left out near the same spot for awhile before someone called the city to come pick it up, the elder Chandler said.
City officials said they received a call at 9:40 a.m. yesterday from a resident complaining about the trash bags. A sanitation worker accompanied by police discovered the body parts as he looked in the bags for any mail or items that might identify the dumpers.
Romankow said his office had received conflicting stories from residents about when the bags appeared. The site is near a creek and two small municipal parks, about a mile from Routes 1&9.
Ralph Mack, a 77-year-old retiree, said he noticed the bags early Thursday morning as he returned from dropping his grandchildren at school. But, he said, he suspects he may have first seen the bags as early as Wednesday night.
Elijah Johnson, who has lived in the neighborhood since the 1980s, said although this appears to be an isolated incident, he is concerned about the safety of the children who live on the street.
"I wish we could have our old neighborhood back," said Johnson, a retired refinery plant technician. "You dont want your kids to go out and play where you have to worry theyll stumble over a body."
Police said the bodies are considered the first two homicides of the year in Linden, though it is possible the victims were killed elsewhere.
Officers reassured residents there will be extra patrols in the neighborhood, police said.
Linden police and the Union County Prosecutors Office Homicide Task Force asked anyone with information about the case to call Crime Stoppers at (908) 654-TIPS. Authorities are offering a reward of up to $5,000.
Pretty shocking.