Human Body Parts Found At Two California Water Treatment Plants

Human body parts have been found in two separate California water treatment plants, though police have said that the body parts are believed to belong to the same person. According to ABC News, a leg and a foot of an unidentified woman were discovered Saturday at a water pollution control plant in Carson, California. Then on Monday, workers at a water treatment plan in the neighboring city of Industry discovered a human head and torso.

NBC Los Angeles stated that after police officials realized that there was a direct link between the Industry sanitation processing area and the Carson plant, they began to believe that the body parts belong to the same person. WAFB quoted lieutenant Mike Rosson of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department saying the following about the human body parts:

“During a check for a plug in a line, they discovered a human torso. That human torso appears to be related to the torso or remains that were found in Carson on Saturday morning. There is a direct link between this sanitation district processing area and Carson’s. The body appears to be a female, possibly Hispanic.”

ABC News stated that investigators do not believe the body was mutilated before entering the sewage system. Rosson told ABC News that “the facility in Industry does not handle solid waste, so mechanical equipment separates the liquid and solid refuse before it arrives in the facility. This process is what likely sent the body parts to two different locations.”

Rosson continued on to say that “anything coming into this plant comes in through a 72-inch line and goes through a centrifugal pump, so you can imagine what kind of damage to… a person’s body going through a centrifugal pump.”

Because the human body parts were found in the water treatment plants, police officials say that the body may have been thrown into a manhole cover or a sewer line, and that a body wouldn’t have ended up there if it had been washed up in a storm channel.

“We are treating it as a homicide right now, but there’s a lot of information that has to be unearthed to determine the actual cause of death and what’s behind it,” Rosson told WAFB.

NBC Los Angeles reported that they human body parts found in the two California water treatment plants could belong to a female, “possibly Hispanic, from the San Gabriel Valley area east of the 605 Freeway.” ABC News countered this report, stating that a representative for the Los Angeles County Sanitation District confirmed to them that an investigation is taking place but he declined to provide details about the case.

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