Part of human body found in bag behind Arlington Heights apartments
Arlington Heights detectives and members of the Major Case Assistance Unit Saturday intensified an investigation into finding out who cut up a man's body and deposited the lower half near a garbage bin at an apartment building.
Officers responding to a 911 call reporting a "a piece of trash was emitting a foul odor" discovered the partial body Friday afternoon on the ground next to trash receptacles at the Marketview Apartments, 21 N. Dryden Place in Arlington Heights.
It had been wrapped in an extra-large black garbage bag.
"Whoever put the body there wanted it to be found," said Monica Muramatsu, who has lived in the same Marketview apartment for 20 years. "They didn't place it in the Dumpster where nobody would notice it. They put it on the ground outside so someone would see it."
Police said a canvass of the neighborhood determined the remains were most likely deposited near the Dumpsters sometime after 7 a.m. Wednesday.
According to the Cook County medical examiner's office, the body was that of a white male severed just above the pelvis by a sharp instrument, such as a blade. There were no signs of excessive trauma caused by an ax or chain saw. The medical examiner's office could not determine the victim's identity or age, or time of the victim's death.
An examiner spokeswoman also said it could not determine exactly how the victim died, or if he had been killed before being cut in half.
On Saturday afternoon, about 15 agents from the Major Case Assistance Unit - a task force of about 20 suburban law enforcement agencies - interviewed apartment dwellers, searching for witnesses and clues. The agents declined to speak about the investigation.
Arlington Heights Commander Kenneth Galinski declined to comment whether the victim was involved in last week's Dial-A-Rock drug bust but did say investigators are still trying to determine who the man is.
He said DNA from the severed body will eventually be sent through a federal database.
"We will be sending it out, but we're just not there yet," Galinski said. "Right now we've got fliers out across the country and locally so we're waiting for someone to respond to those and report this guy missing."
The discovery has some apartment dwellers concerned about their safety.
"I'm scared," said a 15-year-old girl, a resident at the complex for about a year. She said her family was preparing to move to a nearby apartment complex.
"I want out of this place," Bryan Belcher, 19, said Saturday while walking his dog. "It's one thing to find a dead body. To to find half a body is a whole other thing. I gotta get out of here."
Two brothers, 12 and 14, who live in the apartments, said they were interviewed by police and shown photos of the body, which they say bore gang symbol tattoos.
The boys said their family was making plans to move to an apartment complex in Vernon Hills.
"You never know what's going to happen," the 14-year-old boy said.
However, Muramatsu said the dumping of the partial body was an isolated incident.
"I'm not going to leave," she said. "I don't think I need to."
In her 20 years at Marketview, she said she has never had any trouble, and even left her car windows open at night and nothing was ever stolen.
• Daily Herald staff writer Justin Kmitch contributed to this report.