Arlington Heights torso case still a mystery

It still is not known whether body parts found in May in a forest preserve near Des Plaines and those discovered in mid-April in Arlington Heights are the same body, police said.

A severely decomposed torso and head - with multiple cranial injuries - were found May 6 in the Lions Woods forest preserve near Golf and River roads. A few weeks earlier, on April 16, the lower half of a body wrapped in a garbage bag was found at an apartment complex in the first block of North Dryden Place in Arlington Heights.

Arlington Heights Police Cmdr. Kenneth Galinski said they're still waiting on the DNA results from the Illinois State Police forensic crime lab.

"First of all, we want to see if both sides match," said Galinski, who is in charge of investigations. "I would like to think they do, but with the upper body so decomposed, I couldn't say for sure that it was the same body. Even with X-rays it's hard to tell that it is the same person."

The bones from both discoveries were sent to the lab, and police knew it would be at least a few weeks before they got results on whether the parts all belong to the same man. Galinski said he was told that the delay is partly because the person working on the case at the crime lab had taken some vacation time.

The average time for a DNA report currently is just under 60 days, said Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega of the Illinois State Police public information office.

While the lab has a backlog of 661 DNA cases, that is down from 1,010 in September of 2007, he said. Cases older than 30 days are considered part of the backlog.

In April, Arlington Heights police released a sketch of tattoos on the lower part of the body.

A woman from Indiana called police to suggest the body could be her son's, Galinski said, but investigators located a recent girlfriend who said the tattoos did not match.

Eventually, the DNA will go on a national database in an attempt to identify the man, who the medical examiner has described as white or Hispanic, said Galinski.

Anyone who believes they have information about the victim is asked to call Arlington Heights police at (847) 368-5300.

Anonymous tips with the potential of a reward can be called to Arlington Heights Crime Stoppers, (847) 590-7867.