nothin Now They Found An Arm | New Haven Independent

Now They Found An Arm

Paul Bass Photo

Bureau of Identification chief Lt. Herb Johnson (center) and other cops gather after discovery of the arm.

Investigators at the scene of a discovery of two severed human legs came across another grisly find Wednesday evening: what they believe to be a decomposed human arm. (Update: Police said Thursday that the find was in fact two arms, without hands.)

Investigators near embankment where the arm was found.

Members of the police department’s Bureau of Identification were responding to a tip from a citizen. The citizen told a traffic cop that he had recently been smelling something foul” near an embankment on the east side of the train tracks at Chapel and Union Streets, a block from State Street, said police spokesman Officer David Hartman.

Officer Edward Douglas was dispatched to climb a wall below the embankment to check the report out more closely. He found the deteriorated remains of what appears to be at least one arm inside a plastic bag. He took a photo of the arm; at that Det. Bridget Brosnahan of the identification bureau scaled the wall and confirmed the find.

The discovery occurred around 7 p.m.

The officers had been nearby since 11 a.m., when two severed legs were discovered a block away on the other side of the tracks amid thick foliage in a small patch of land at Court and State Streets. The legs were found up a 30-foot embankment above the train tracks, on the other side of a fence.

A crew from the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office arrived in the afternoon to retrieve the legs and study them for analysis. The crew returned to its Farmington office with the legs. The office was summoned back to New Haven, along with its cadaver dog, to retrieve and analyze the arm. It was not certain that the arm belonged to the same person as the legs did.

Now it’s up to the chief medical examiner to try to determine the victim’s age and gender and race so police can narrow their search. The office will also take DNA samples that can be matched to databases of unsolved murders.

Homicide detectives Michael Wuchek (at left) and Bertram Ettienne (center) head over from the leg-discovery site to the arm-discovery site.

The original find was on city-owned property, according to police, but the latest find is on railroad property, which means the investigation will now be multi-jurisdictional.

We don’t think it’s an animal,” Hartman said of the arm. There’d be a whole animal and fur. It’s probable that it’s a human arm.”

At 9:30 p.m. investigators packed up under the cover of darkness with plans to resume the search in the morning.

It’s certainly probable” that the arm and legs came from the same victim, Hartman said at a 9:30 p.m. press conference at Court and State. But we can’t at this time” state it definitively. We are kind of in a waiting game.” Police at this point consider it not likely” that the victim had been dismembered at one of the scenes where the body parts were found.

State Death Investigators” Called In

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Officer Juan Monzon cuts back the brush to look for more body parts.

The drama began around 11 a.m. when police, alerted by a homeless man, found two dismembered human legs in an overgrown lot next to the State Street train station.

The two legs, with socks on but no shoes, were discovered under thick brush between a fence and trees next to the bridge over Court Street by State, on a patch of land that is next to the train station and elevated above the tracks. By 7:41 p.m. a search continued of the premises; no other body parts had been found.

It was unclear if the legs belonged to a male or female, or what race the person was.

It was also not clear why someone would dump legs there.

Sometimes we’ve all heard that people who are dismembered — if in fact that is the case — this would happen to try to throw investigators off as to where a person is and who a person is,” spokesman Hartman said at a 2:30 p.m. press briefing at the scene.

Someone had told cops two days earlier that they’d seen legs in the area. Officers, with the help of the fire department, searched the general vicinity. With no more specific directions at that time, they failed to find the body parts, Hartman said.

The crime scene was taped off and left intact for hours Wednesday, with State Street northbound closed to traffic. The State Street train station was also closed; riders caught trains at Union Station down the street instead.

We are waiting now for the death investigators from the chief medical examiner to show up. They are going to kind of take the lead of the forensic end of it as far as the actual body parts that were found,” Hartman (pictured) said at 2:30. Our forensic unit and major crime squads [will be] trying to identify who these legs belong to.”

Because the legs appeared to have been in the spot for at least a week, we don’t believe that rushing in and disturbing any probable crime scene is necessary,” Hartman said.

The medical examiner’s team, with the cadaver dog (pictured) in tow, arrived around 3:30 p.m. and got to work.

It took a while for cops, with the help of Livable City Initiative (LCI) staffer Laurie Lopez, to determine who owns the patch of brushy land, which abuts state, federal and local property. In the end Lopez determined the city owns it. So the New Haven police will lead the investigation.

They’ll have help from the medical examiner. Hartman explained that the examiner has staffers with expertise — to analyze things like insects and plants at the scene — that local police don’t have. Still, the local police Bureau of Investigation began preparing at 2 p.m. to establish a grid pattern” at the plot of land to search piece by piece once the medical examiner’s team removes the legs.

The police also prepared to comb through missing records reports — the department receive some 600 a year, the vast majority involves runaways — and contact departments in other cities. It’s unclear whether the dead person came from New Haven or somewhere else.

Homeless people sometimes sleep in enclaves around the tracks in that area.

Legs Found Near Railroad Station

Paul Bass Photo

Police found a pair of severed legs near the train tracks at Court and State Streets Wednesday.

The feet had socks on but not shoes.

Police closed off the area around Court and Chapel after making the discovery late Wednesday morning. A passerby told a cop in person about the legs and the cops went to search for them.

The police found the legs mid-brush (at right in top photo) against the fence overseeing the railroad tracks at Court and State, right near the State Street railroad station.

We’re not sure if there’s a body or not,” Lt. Tony Reyes (at right in photo) said at the scene.

The department’s Bureau of Identification showed up at around 12:20 p.m. to explore further. The chief medical examiner’s office was en route to retrieve the parts.

The officers at the scene had not wanted to disturb the crime scene before the Bureau of Identification arrived. It looks like it’s from the knee down,” Reyes said. We can see legs. We can’t see the rest.”

Police spokesman Officer David Hartman confirmed the legs were severed.

Numerous bystanders at the scene said they had seen the legs at the location for days.

A woman, who declined to give her name, said her husband had called police about the legs two days ago. She said her brother-in-law had taken a photo of the legs.

At noon, she said the police had her brother-in-law and husband in custody for questioning.

Police taped off portions of State Street, and the State Street rail station temporarily shut down.

It is unknown how long the remains have been there or to whom they may belong. The age, gender and race of the victim cannot be determined without further forensic examination,” Hartman reported in a state issued later. Detectives will be looking into disappearances and reports of missing persons from ours and other jurisdictions in hopes of identifying the victim. At this point, no other body parts have been discovered or recovered.”

Finnegan Schick and Markeshia Ricks contributed reporting.

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