Body found in paper bales at recycling plant

ALSIP -- Workers at a suburban Chicago recycling plant noticed blood in bales of paper, then body parts, before they found the body of a man who had been crushed to death, according to police.

Rafael Hernandez, an apparent homeless man in his 40s, likely climbed into a paper bin to sleep, authorities said. Hernandez died of multiple injuries from a paper compactor, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

"It looks like an accident," Alsip Police Chief Bob Troy said.

Workers at Quincy Recycled Paper found Hernandez in paper bales that a truck delivered, Troy said. That truck had a garbage-truck-style compactor and baler, he said.

"The truck (driver) took him to the recycling center, and he went through a baler and compactor," Troy said.