Back in January of this year, I came across an intriguing case about two severed legs found in a city dump. I’ve recently been thinking about the case, probably cause Halloween is right around the corner and I love Halloween, but I really wanted to share it with y’all . There’s not quite enough info for a write-up, so I went down a rabbit hole of random body parts found and added a few more severed limbs for y’all to read up on.
BOOTS WITH THE FUR
March 2017 – Two human legs were found in separate trash bags at a recycling facility. One leg was wearing a boot with fur. Investigators were able to track the truck they came in on and determined the legs came from a dumpster in northwest Columbus. The remains were picked up sometime between March 21st and March 23rd.
June 2017 – Candace Taylor goes missing. Last known contact was made to her mother (Theodora Taylor) via text message.
2019 – The legs are identified by a Franklin County Coroner. They belong to Candice Taylor.
What happened here? Her legs were found before she went missing? Why did it take so long to match DNA? The coroner told her mother that she could still be alive?
Theodora last saw her daughter in March but continued to communicate via text. Candace told her mom she was pregnant and needed time to herself – those messages continued until June 24th, when Candice responded to a birthday message from her mom. This was the final message she responded to.
Who had her phone, texting her mom AFTER the legs were found? That’s risky!
As for the two year DNA identification, apparently that’s forensics backlog. Which is absolutely insane.
No additional parts of Candace have been found and police are still investigating the case as a possible homicide.
Links below (way down below) – including the True Crime Society Facebook group. This is where I followed this case and there’s tons of additional information not found in media reports. Plus lots of juicy screenshots, like the ones above.
THE TWITTER TORSO
January 28th 2015 San Francisco police responded to reports of a suspicious package near Twitter Headquarters, actually it was a block away but every media report associated the location with twitter.
Police found a roller-type suitcase that had been left next to a pile of garbage and debris at 11th and Market streets, inside was a human torso. The remains were so mutilated; sex and race were unknown at the time. Police then found Part of a leg and foot in a trash can nearby.
On Jan 30th police combed through local surveillance and identified a man rolling a suitcase down the street and later carrying backpacks over his shoulders. They reached out to the public for help, releasing a still photo of the person of interest.
On Jan 31st A tip led law enforcement to room 409 of a public housing complex, where Mark Andrus (59) was escorted out of the building with a sheet over his head and taken in for questioning.
At the time (DNA confirms later) detectives believed the torso in the suitcase belonged to a former roommate of Andrus,Omar Shahwan. Omar was missing. With help from a public defender, Law Enforcement had to release Andrus. Of course, keeping him under close surveillance and hoping he would lead them to evidence. That did not happen.
Four days after Andrus was released, he collapsed and died.
Detectives were eventually able to extract data from his cell phone. This leads them to the Aldrich Hotel, where just a few days before the body parts were found, Andrus and Omar both checked into a room together. After questioning neighboring rooms, detectives discover two males were heard arguing followed by someone “begging for mercy”. Nearly a month had passed and as gruesome as this murder sounds, there was no evidence found in the hotel. How is this possible?? Luminal should have lit the room up like a Christmas tree. Nothing.
Detectives continue to track his digital moves and discovered Andrus spent lots of time googling hand saws and power tools on Craigslist, he searched how to use hand saws to “cut up meat”. Shortly after, the case is closed.
To recap: we have a torso in a Suitcase, a piece of a foot in the dumpster, lack of evidence, lack of motive and no suspect.
Plus: no crime scene, no murder weapon, no additional body parts were ever found, nor were those backpacks.
EYES WIDE SHUT
December 12, 2014 – Rural Pennsylvania, a teenager walking home through the woods made a gruesome discovery, the embalmed, severed head of a middle-aged woman. Even more gruesome, the woman’s eyes had been replaced with red rubber balls. The eyes were closed with eye caps – a mortician’s tool to keep the lids closed – in each of her eyes.
Despite many tips and other than the fact that she appeared to be in her 60s and had grey hair, investigators had no name for the woman. They released a sketch done of her head but the public was still unable to help identify her.
Prior to a burial, the investigators sent her remains off for additional testing in another attempt to identify her.
The results were announced during a press conference:
According to tests conducted by Salt Lake City-based IsoForensics, isotopes in the woman’s remains showed that she had spent her last seven months moving between Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. Based on the results, the woman probably grew up in Western Pennsylvania, south of Beaver County. Toxicology tests also showed trace amounts of Lidocaine and Atropine in her body, suggesting that she suffered from a cardiac ailment and may have died from it.
Police Chief Mike O’Brien
The case left detectives perplexed. Someone took the time to professionally dismember and embalm a womans head only to discard it in the woods. They placed mortician eyecaps over her eyes but placed red rubber balls from a cheap jacks game in her eye sockets.
One popular theory is that she was the victim of a body broker and perhaps her other parts have been sold on the black market. Regardless, the case still remains unsolved and the grey haired woman still hasn’t been identified.
FRANKENSTEIN (the one in Arizona)
in 2014 FBI agents made the sickening discovery at the Biological Resource Center in Phoenix Arizona.
Buckets full of infected heads, arms and legs, as well as heaps of refrigerated male genitalia and different people’s body parts sewn together.
Pools of human blood and bodily fluids were found on the floor of the freezer. There were no identification tags to mark the corpses.
A woman’s decapitated head had been sewn onto a large male torso and hung on the wall. Bodies were stacked on bodies.
Steven Gore, the clinics owner, who never even had any type of medical license was arrested. He initially ended up on the FBI’s radar after he was accused of providing customers with “contaminated tissue,”
Gore pleaded guilty to running the enterprise illegally and admitted his mistakes,
“I could have been more open about the process of donation on the brochure we put in public view. When deciding which donors could be eligible to donate, I should have hired a medical director rather than relying on medical knowledge from books or the internet.”
– Gore
The Biological Resource Center had been selling “whole bodies with no shoulders or head” for $2,900, according to a price list included in court documents cited by AZ Central. A torso with a head would cost $3,300, a spine cost $850, and a whole leg cost $1,100. Feet, knees, and pelvises all sold for less than $1000.
THE BONE COLLECTOR
Between August 20, 2007 and today, twenty human feet have been found on the coasts of the Salish Sea in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, US.
August 20, 2007 – Jedediah Island, British Columbia, Canada – A man’s right foot in a size 12 Adidas shoe is found- later identified as a man suffering from depression.
August 26, 2007 – Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada – A man’s right foot found in size 12 white Reebok shoe is found. Produced in 2004, sold worldwide, and the type has since been discontinued.
February 8, 2008 – Valdes Island, British Columbia, Canada – A right foot in a size 11 Nike – identified as a man who went missing in 2004
May 22, 2008 – Kirkland Island, British Columbia, Canada – A woman’s right foot in a blue-and-white New Balance shoe is found. Manufactured in 1999. In 2011 identified to belong to a woman who jumped from the Pattullo Bridge in New Westminster in April 2004
June 16, 2008 – Westham Island, British Columbia, Canada – A man’s left foot is found – DNA matches it to the right foot found February 8, 2008.
August 1, 2008- Near Pysht, Washington, US – A man’s right foot inside a black size 11 shoe is found.
November 11, 2008 – Richmond, British Columbia, Canada – A woman’s left foot, in a small New Balance running shoe DNA matches it to the foot found on May 22nd
October 27, 2009 – Richmond, British Columbia, Canada – A right foot in a size 8½ Nike running shoe is found. Identified as a man who was reported missing in January 2008. Reported by authorities to have died of natural causes. (how do they know this)
August 27, 2010 — Whidbey Island, Washington, US – A woman or child’s right foot, without a shoe or sock is found.
December 5, 2010 – Tacoma, Washington, US – A right foot inside a boy’s size 6 ‘Ozark Trail’ hiking boot, is found.
August 30, 2011- False Creek, British Columbia, Canada – Leg bones and a foot were found in a white and blue size 9 mens shoe.
November 4, 2011 – Sasamat Lake, British Columbia, Canada – A right foot inside a size 12 hiking boot – a year later it was identified as Stefan Zahorujko – missing in 1987
December 10, 2011 – Lake Union, Seattle, Washington, US – A human leg bone and foot in a black plastic bag
January 26, 2012 – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – A foot in a boot was found.
May 6, 2014 – Seattle, Washington, US – A foot in a mens white size 10½ New Balance shoe isas found. Model 622 athletic shoe was white with blue trim, size men’s 10½. first available for sale in April 2008.
February 7, 2016 – Vancouver Island, British Columbia , Canada – A foot in a sock and shoe found.
February 12, 2016 – Vancouver Island, British Columbia , Canada – A foot found – no shoe, it matches the one found 5 days prior
December 8, 2017- Vancouver Island, British Columbia , Canada – A Leg and shoe are found
May 6, 2018 – Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada – A Foot is found in a hiking boot.
September, 2018 – West Vancouver, BC, Canada – A male foot found in a grey Nike shoe is found, size 9.5 manufactured 2/1/2017 and 4/17/17. Blue sock. Under the age of 50
January 1, 2019 – Jetty Island, Everett Washington – A Foot found in a boot – identified Antonio Neill who went missing 12/12/16.
All these floating feet found have caused plenty of speculation. Are they from the December 26, 2004 Asian tsunami? Do they belong to people who died in a boating accident? A plane crash into the ocean? One foot belonged to a woman who jumped from a bridge, are they all suicide feet? Some believe it’s the work of a killer. However, Law Enforcement says nothing at all suggests foul play. Really, not even foot and partial leg found in a bag? Nope. None. Specialists have even offered a simple explanation that puts the foul play theories to rest.
“In water, human bodies naturally disarticulate, or come apart at the joints, so water-logged hands and feet often disconnect from corpses. Feet are in shoes, shoes float, Therefore the currents carry them to shore. Under optimal conditions, a human body may remain intact in water for as long as three decades, meaning that the feet may have been floating around for years.”
– Simple Explanation from a Specialists
This started in 2007, so of course I’m going to think its foul play. Someone started in 2007 and is still on a horrific killing spree today. But what about that one foot found in 2011 belonging to a man missing since 1989? Surely someone hasn’t been at it for this long, have they?
OK – then why haven’t they washed up before 2007? Scientist have an explanation for that as well, the media reporting these foot finds has led to curiosity, curiosity led to people looking for shoes at the beach.
I guess before 2007 people just overlooked all the feet and shoes?
Why do they only wash up there? Why not along all coastal shorelines? Where do all these feet missing a body come from? Why aren’t more identified? Why isn’t shoe size a routine question asked by law enforcement when reporting a loved one missing? I have no idea, I guess we all just wait for the next foot to wash up and hope it gives us all the answers. Until then, check inside those random shoes you find at the beach!! You could be the one who finds #21, Snap a photo and post it in True Crime Society, after you notify authorities, of course.
Links:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/128750637722556
https://people.com/crime/suitcase-full-of-body-parts-found-near-twitter-headquarters
https://sfist.com/2016/02/01/suitcase_murder_case_closed_with_fe/
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Suspect-in-S-F-body-parts-case-dead-6069878.php#photo-7464128