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Updated 12:10 a.m. ET Saturday: The man whose head, hands and feet were found in the Hollywood Hills was identified by police as 67-year-old retiree Hervey Medellin. Medellin was a resident of a Hollywood apartment building investigators searched earlier in the day. Sources told the Los Angeles Times that Medellin was a former Mexicana Airlines employee.
Original story
LOS ANGELES -- Authorities have identified the man whose head, hands and feet were found in the Hollywood Hills, but have not yet released his name, officials said Friday.
Coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter told NBCLosAngeles.com that the name was being withheld at the request of the Los Angeles police detectives who are continuing to investigate the crime. Officials also want to notify the man's family before releasing the information to the public, the television website reported.
On Thursday evening, police served a search warrant in an apartment complex in Hollywood, close to Sunset Boulevard and Vine Streets, according to the Los Angeles Times. They towed a silver Honda from the building, the Times reported.
Although no arrests have been made in the case, the Times is reporting that at least one person was questioned by detectives Thursday. Sources close to the investigation said police were also looking to talk to at least one other man.
Meanwhile, investigators in California were downplaying any possible connection between the body parts case in Los Angeles and a dismembered body found earlier this month in a rural area of Tuscon, Ariz.
Read more about the Hollywood case on NBCLosAngeles.com
"It's fairly implausible that somebody would drive parts of a dead body five hours from Arizona to our Griffith Park," Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith told Reuters.
Smith added there was also no evidence that the man in California was the victim of organized crime or a serial killer.
Arizona sheriff officials say they are are awaiting DNA results, expected Tuesday, to try to definitively rule out any connection between the two cases.
Pima County Sheriff's Deputy Dawn Barkman said two men were cutting grass along the side of a rural road on Jan. 6 found a body without a head, hands or feet. Investigators determined the body had been in that location for only 24 hours, and a search turned up none of the missing body parts, she said.
Los Angeles police believe their victim was killed elsewhere and the body parts were buried or hidden to deter identification, according to NBCLosAngeles.com.
“They may have been disturbed by animals, but initially they were left off trail and not intended to be found,” Smith told the NBC website.
By early afternoon Thursday, police ended their search in the Hollywood Hills area for the parts, after determining that major portions of the remains – the torso, the arms and the legs – were not in the park, NBC reported.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
Leave a Comment:
There are some sick people out there!
heard the lead detective told them he wanted results... chop chop...heard they used cutting edge technology...
Plain Bob - that really cracked me up! LOL.
Hmmmm? I'm thinking it was probably suicide!
:)
the connections, or reasons for why this guy was killed, maybe even hacked alive to bleed to death, i am rather curious about.
@plain bob, good one :)
Robert...How do you pronounce the guy's last name, Medellin, in Spanish? Or maybe just add Cartel to it...
plain bob : don't you mean the head detective
Probably a Gay relationship gone sour or a bad drug deal ??
wait, just hold on...you know it's coming......
It all makes sense now. He probably discovered some drug trafficking and 'they' got him.
Yes, there are some sick people out there but, what is even sicker is the press. What value has it to identify the body parts as being from a "retiree"? Are retirees more prone to be found in pieces??
I'm hoping they find him alive.
There was a rock band in the 70's called head hands and feet (look it up). Do you think they were involved?
The police said they didn't think there was any connection between his death and organized crime.... but sounds like the murder was possibly meant as a warning for others. The murderer(s) may have thought he was passing information along to authorities about smuggling, etc. and wanted to discourage anyone else from doing so.
The case smells of drug trade for a mile. This guy used to work for a Mexican airline - maybe he knew too much and tried to blackmail someone
I'm confused.. story said Dogwalkers walking dogs one came out of scrub with bag, dog shook bag head flew out. Right? The Police say it wasn't organized crime or a serial killer. Guess the guy just lost his head.....Wonder if the identified him by his fingerprints..... Confused.
I'm confused also, they sure do know a lot for not knowing anything..What was the point of this article..
ID by dental records or mitochondrial DNA
I see that this story has been updated since your comment so to put my two cents in, I believe he would have been identified by his fingerprints that were on file from his job at Mexicana Airlines.
If it was not a organized crime hit or a serial killer, the next possibility is hardly death from natural causes or a bad shaving accident.
Fingerprints lead to name. DNA from hands matched DNA from head. Not hard. Mentioned Mexicana Air lines= drug smuggling and/or distributing.
Fingerprints lead to name. DNA from hands matched DNA from head. Not hard. Mentioned Mexicana Air lines= drug smuggling and/or distributing.
I tried wilsonaide once - far more bitter than lemonade.
Sick isn't the word for it.
Not sure why the authorities are so certain that this case & the one from Arizona aren't connected. Wouldn't it make it that much harder to identify your victim if the parts were distributed in various states??? Not always the best communication between state agencies, would make it harder to get an identity on the victim and the person responsible. (Yes, I watch WAYYYY to much CSI, Criminal Minds, 48 Hours, etc.)
I was thinking the same - more than coincidental to find head, hands and feet in one spot, and a headless, handless, feetless man in another, and not think crime is connected!!! Duh
CSI is fake, inaccurate and gives false hope to viewers and the mass public that reality is as wondrous as the labs and endless money spend on the equipment and super smart, talented individuals. In reality only 20% of homicides are solved, labs are backlogged for months, sometimes close to a year or more. City homicides rates have even less than 20% solved due to the "code of the streets" where people don't talk about what they have "not seen" to law enforcement.
Hey DC--
I never said anything about the failure to solve this in 48 hours....I used to be married to a cop so I totally realize that investigations can take a very long time. All I was getting at was the fact that it seemed a bit odd that a body minus the head, hands & feet was found in Arizona...and a head, hands & feet were found in California, but law enforcement emphatically states that the 2 cases can not be related. Just seems a wee bit coincidental to me. So, get over yourself and all of your "statistics", ok?
maybe they are of different races. if decomposition had not reached an unidentifiable point yet, this might be a reason for not being a match.
I'd say the best way to avoid identification of the victim would be to have buried him, or his sundry parts. I certainly wouldn't drive hundreds of miles to drop the head and hands in the hollywood hills. Suppose you get pulled over for a busted tail light and the cop smells something in your trunk?
This sounds like a impulse crime, followed by a clumsy cover-up. The killer dismembered the victim and thought if he (or she) scattered the parts, it would be too difficult a jigsaw puzzle for the LA cops to piece together.
I guess memory of the O.J. Simpson trial hasn't faded all that much.
LAPD is investigating the possibility of suicide.......
if they were... depressed and heart broken...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcWZV-FHB2U
Oh My... that was milk out the nose laugh when I followed the link...
You are awesome!
Playing jump rope with razor wire?????
This case has CSI or Criminal Minds written all over it. Very strange.
CSI is FAKE. In reality labs are backlogged months to a year and only 20% of homicides are solved.
Also reminds me of Law and Order
Gosh, DC... You must live in a really small, unhappy world...
Hey DC, did you know that approximately 90% of statistics are made up?
DC, did you know 90% of baseball is mental? The other half is physical.
please hold, getting calculator.....
I agree wel Hong. This very well could have been a suicide. A very well covered up suicide. The mob don't leave no body parts where some nerd walking their chit eater can find them. The mob uses agricultural fields in the midwest, big buildings like the GM building, say hello to hoffa.
Oh, there cannot be any connection to organized crime, like the exact crimes being done all over mexico. The fact that this story only reports of one similar case in Tucson, and does not even mention the others in Arizona, all along the border, shows how complacent the media covers the stories of the day. They don't want the public to know how the federal government is mishandling the entire drug cartel business.
The scum of mexico is killing mexicans in mexico and the US, and the current administration does not want the truth released. Just like the DEA laundering money for the cartels, the BATFE ensuring those cartels have proper weaponry, all under the guise of discovering the names of KNOWN cartel leaders. A pure load of BS, and they think that we actually believe them.
But, then again, there is enough sheeple out there to fall for their garbage, and blindly follow them, and re-elect them, and bow to their whims, and fold to their demands, and live in the fear they wish to control, metered out at controled levels untill it's too late.
And...pure speculation but...the guy was named Medellin (just like the drug gang...coincidence?). And he previously worked for Mexicana Airlines (inside scoop for moving drugs)?
He was killed by members of the cartel in Tuscon. Those parts were transported back to L.A. to prove that the hit got carried out. Then they were dumped under the Hollywood sign.
That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
wow... I thought I was the only one who thought that exact thing.
Suicide? I'm trying very hard here to picture how one takes his own life by cutting off his feet, his hands and his head, and then distributing the body parts in various locations.
You apparently did'nt catch the slight humor in TWH's comment. I did:)
Motivation?
no doubt it was an accident, guy tripped while out walking his dog and rolled over his pocket knife several times on the way down, happens all the time.
You idiots.
Baa-aaa
I am hoping it's the head of Bill Mahar !!
I'm hoping it's Glenn Beck !!!
Yaaa hoooo
It's that whack job Tebow
Please God...let it be Glenn Beck.
And, the Lord said, "Let your communication be yea, yea....
YEA, LORD! LET IT BE GLENN BECK, the headless horseman...er, morseman...er, moreman!
Leave Glenn alone...
where is OJ somebody better check up on him to make sure he's still locked up.
Not enough blood for O.J at the scene, no white Bronco on the lam to cover up "suspicions"
Wow, Mo. You are quite the detective.
I enjoy that it was in rural "Tuscon"..also, it turns out Gov Jan Brewer can see the FUTURE!!
Yeah -- Where is "Tuscon"? I've heard of Tucson, but Tuscon? Sounds like the name of an abandoned mining town in a desert somewhere. I guess it makes sense though -- perfect place to leave body parts.
in this case rural TUCSON is the border of Arizona and mexico, from Sierra Vista west to nearly Yuma, mostly the area just outside Rio Rico.
And Jan Brewer can see the present, unlike manet nappy-olli-tano and barak "the blind".
They not only see the future, they're real busy creating it...
The thought of hacking off someones head, let alone hands and feet is far beyond my imagination. There are some sick individuals out there and this makes me even more weary of strangers.
heyjoe1 -- You should also be more WARY of strangers!
I don't understand not releasing the name. Let's say you know person X that is missing but also missing is person Y and Z. You didn't realize that person X was missing but you haven't seen this person since event P. If the police release the name you can come forward and say I saw person X at P at whatever time and date. That could help the police.
Instead you still don't know that person X is really missing and can't help because you don't know.
two reasons:
1) Family members have to be alerted before the name is released to the AP
2) It protects an investigation
DC is right. In the past too many loved ones have turned on the "news" to discover a family member dead in a tragic way. This also gives the investigators first opportunity to question the family about the victim and who he/she might have known, when they last had contact, etc. and then they can sort out the alphabet soup.
Bad Bad Boy Leroy Brown?
Meanest man in the whole damned town ;0
After the fighting was like a jigsaw with a few parts missing?
If this has anything to do with the Mexican drug cartels who are being taught this stuff from Isalmic Terrorist we have a real problem on our hands. This means for the first time in a long time we have a real threat on our border. The enemy is already inside and even more waiting at our doorstep. Now that they have stepped up thier intensity it will never go away - it will have to be crushed eventually. And that means we will eventually have hostilities with the Mexican gov. too! What a big F-ing mess...
Carl,
The Islamic extremists have been chopping hands since the time of day in the name of their god.
Mexican drug cartels have been doing the same to usurp power over others.
In essence, they are two different hand chopping peoples.
Dexter is out there . .
"Pima County Sheriff's Deputy Dawn Barkman said two men were cutting grass along the side of a rural road on Jan. 6 found a body without a head, hands or feet"
uh the two men were probably smoking grass.. not cutting it.. christ its california. didn't they say he was arabian or something? probably fell of his magic carpet and went thru powerlines like a hot knife thru butta.
This was in Arizona
Hey MSNBC Staff: you EXECUTE a search warrant, not serve it.
You execute a search warrant when serving it and then following up on what it actually authorizes. Handing it over to the subject and/or attorney is when you serve it. There is a distinction. You can serve a warrant without fully executing it.
Thank you for clearing that up Candy Allred... LOL
Police identify body parts: "That over there, that's a hand. And next to it is a foot. You can see a bit of ankle still attached ..."
In an unrelated story, Soylent Meats, Inc has recalled a batch of hamburger from area supermarkets.
Um, Tucson is more than five hours from LA. Try at least eight.
True Stephen...L.A.'s about five hours from Phoenix....Tucson about three hours beyond that. Plenty of spots to toss a part or two in between...no need to go all the way to L.A.
Forget the beans they're hand-choppers! Oh, well. Another case of the Black Dahlia except in Arizona. What a drag! Why is this so boring? That's all they know how to do out west is chop up people and leave them in miscellaneous spots! Well, for the people that kill anyway. Who in their right mind would even think about doing something like that? I guess they're not in their right mind. O_o