Body parts discovered near famed L.A. sign
Head, hands and feet found in Hollywood Hills
LOS ANGELES – As the sun set over the Hollywood Hills park where police spent Wednesday searching for human body parts, they still didn’t have a name to go with the man’s head discovered there a day earlier.
What they did have were two hands and two feet. Authorities were hoping the hands were in good enough condition to obtain fingerprints.
The homicide investigation began Tuesday afternoon after two dog walkers in Bronson Canyon Park noticed their dogs playing with a plastic bag and went to inspect it.
Inside was a man’s head. His hair was graying. Police said he appeared to be in his 40s, possibly of Armenian descent, and that he probably had been dead for a day or two.
The discovery launched a massive search. More than 30 Los Angeles Police Department detectives and additional officers on horseback fanned out across seven acres of rugged parkland Wednesday.
A “cadaver dog” from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office found one hand, and later the other, in brush not far from where the head was discovered.
Unlike the head, they were not in bags.
Then, as officials were about to leave for the day, the feet were found.
Detectives believe that the killing happened elsewhere and that the body – or at least some of the parts – were dumped in the park.
“We’re hoping we can find more remains,” said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith, adding that wild animals may have moved some of the body parts.
The search was expected to continue this morning.