NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — New Haven police confirm that they have located the remains of human legs near the train tracks at the corner of State and Court Streets, and an arm along the tracks near Chapel Street.
Just after 11:20 a.m., police responded to the area near the State Street Train Station on a report of human remains found, and found legs. Police say at about 7 p.m., investigators found a plastic bag that appears to contain at least one human arm.
“A rookie patrol officer who had a traffic point at the crime scene was alerted by someone who said that they had walked by the area of Union Street and Chapel Street, and for quite some time had smelled what seemed to be a rotting smell,” said New Haven Police Department public information officer David Hartman. He says there’s no certainty the arm and legs are related.
Witnesses say the legs were found between State Street itself and the train tracks in some bushes. In those bushes is a chain link fence to prevent people and animals from getting down to the train tracks. Near that fence is where the bottom part of two human legs were found, startling Pablo Rivera and his friend on Monday.
“He started screaming, ‘hey, come here, I think I found something, two human legs, come here, I want to make sure it is real,'” Rivera said.
He alerted police on Monday, but officials couldn’t find anything.
“The officers called it in. They had the fire department respond as well,” said Hartman. “I don’t know what tools were used, but if you didn’t know what you were looking for and you didn’t have someone there to point out where they were talking about, it would be almost a futile search.”
Rivera went back to the police with pictures on Wednesday.
“I come here today and still there the legs,” he said. “I had take the picture and I go to the police again and showed the picture.”
The New Haven Major Crimes Division spent the day combing the area collecting evidence and taking pictures. As of 4:45 p.m., the legs were removed from the scene, bagged, and taken by the State Medical Examiner’s office for forensic testing. Investigators don’t know the gender or race or age of the of the victim.
“These legs have been here or at least in their condition for some time; I’m told over a week,” said Hartman.
The police department will now rely on the expertise of the Medical Examiner’s office. Police say this case needs to be looked at beyond the border of New Haven.
“We have to involve investigators and especially missing persons investigators from other jurisdictions as well,” Hartman said.
Investigators remain in the area. Police say forensic investigators have requested that death investigators from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner return to the scene. They say state police will also bring in a cadaver dog.
