Last Wednesday night, a gruesome discovery was made in San Francisco when a suitcase full of dismembered body parts was found on the side of the street. Within a few minutes of the suitcase being called in as a “suspicious package”, police arrived on the scene and immediately shut it down as a crime scene. Later, police found more parts located in a trashcan a few blocks away. As a common place for taking a walk, San Francisco residents are shocked by what has happened so close to their homes.

“It scares me, it really scares me because I walk here every day,” said Arsenia Bersola, a SoMa resident.

As a high traffic area, there are cameras located around the scene, investigators have looked through the videos and came across one man who was spotted in the surveillance near the scene of the crime. Mark Andrus was taken into custody and presented as a “person of interest”. The one suspicious element to the case is that Andrus’s friend and former roommate, Omar Shahwan, has been missing for several days. Michael Keever, Andrus’ friends, believes police made a mistake arresting Andrus in connection to this gruesome murder.

“He was always pleasant, nice,” Keever told reporters. “That’s what knocked me out. It’s unbelievable.”

When Andrus was arrested, he had Shahwan’s state identification card in his possession, which raised concerns for police. Investigators are looking at Shahwan to be the potential victim of the murder. After four days of his initial release, Andrus was freed due to the lack of evidence by prosecutors.

“Until we have the evidence necessary to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt, we are ethically obligated to hold off on charging this suspect,” San Francisco’s Department office said during a statement to the press.

Examiners tested the body parts to determine whether they were animal or human, but came back as a match to a human. . As the search continues, medical examiners await their voyage ahead of them. Within the suitcase and trash, there is no hands or feet that can be used to test the DNA of who the victim is, only a torso was found. The torso remains lead investigators to consider this crime as an organized gang or group responsibility.

“At this stage of the case, the medical examiner has yet to determine a cause of death or issue a positive identification of the victim,” says Alex Bastian, an office spokesman.

The body parts fit the description of a light-skinned male, nothing else can be discovered yet. Examiners are still looking into potential ways the victim died, but no pin-point has been made yet. Investigators hope to identify the victim and be able to take action towards finding out who did this horrible crime. Local call numbers have been set up in case anyone saw anything suspicious and would like to report it.

FSA Connection

1. What is the central idea of the passage?
2. Give two sentences that support your idea.
3. What is a connotation meaning for the word gruesome?
4. What are police doing in order to keep high-alert on this case
5. Provide two sentences that support your answer to number four.