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Police detain two while investigating body parts stuffed in suitcase

The detentions follow Wednesday's discovery of a human torso that was stuffed inside a suitcase in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood.

By Fred Lambert

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Police have detained two suspects in connection to the discovery of human body parts inside a suitcase in a San Francisco neighborhood earlier this week.

Officers apprehended two people Friday at 7:30 p.m. in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood after receiving an anonymous tip. Witnesses identified one of the suspects as a person of interest in the crime.

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The detentions follow the discovery of a dismembered body in the South of Market neighborhood Wednesday. Officers responding to reports of a suspicious package found a headless human torso jammed within a suitcase. Other parts, including a severed leg, were discovered in garbage containers in the surrounding area.

The San Francisco medical examiner's office on Friday said the victim was an unidentified light-skinned male.

Authorities released surveillance footage from a nearby business to the public earlier Friday, showing a person of interest dragging a suitcase. The suspect was a 5-foot 7-inch white man in his 50s or 60s, wearing jeans, a blue and orange jacket and a pinstripe baseball cap.

"Homicide needs to figure out whether or not this person is in fact involved in the crime aspect of this case," San Francisco police spokesperson Grace Gatpandan told KGO-TV. "Obviously he is a person of interest in this case; however he has not been charged with that crime."

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One resident of the Tenderloin public housing building, who called the suspect the "leprechaun" due to being short and not speaking much, said he had seen the man there multiple times visiting another resident. Another witness said he recognized the man from the surveillance photos.

Police said the suspect was cooperative and is being questioned. No details have been released about the other detained person.

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