Pieces of human bodies were found in a pipe overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in Saint-Priest (Rhône). A suspect was arrested and taken into custody while the victim has yet to be identified.
It’s a plumbing intervention that turned into a horror. Pieces of human bodies were discovered in a pipe overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, in Saint-Priest south-east of Lyon (Rhône). These human remains could have remained there for a long time without anyone noticing if they had not blocked the toilets of a resident of the building connected to the pipes. It was because a woman living on the ground floor asked for repairs to repair her toilets which had been clogged since the day before the body was found, or at least part of it. On site, around midnight, the maintenance worker sawed through the faulty pipe and discovered clothing, then a foot, hands and other bits of flesh. The man immediately informed the police who were able to make the first findings before starting the search on Wednesday January 18.
An investigation for “intentional homicide”
The police moved to the scene of the macabre discovery to make the findings. A quick search of the premises revealed an electric saw in a trash can near the entrance to the building, writes The Parisian. As a result, the Lyon prosecutor’s office immediately opened “an investigation by the head of intentional homicide”. Obviously, the cutting of the victim’s body and the place where they were hidden show that someone tried to get rid of them according to the analysis of a police source at BFM TV.
The investigations were entrusted to the zonal direction of the judicial police (DZPJ) and have already made it possible to identify a suspect who was placed in police custody on the morning of Wednesday January 18. The man is said to be a member of the victim’s friendly entourage who has not yet been formally identified.
Given the first elements of the investigation, the investigators favor for the time being the track of the “gratuitous” murder, without criminal motive. A psychiatric expertise of the suspect must allow the investigations to progress.
The victim is said to be a 17-year-old boy.
The discovery of hands and pieces of flesh allowed investigators to carry out a genetic fingerprinting and DNA analysis. These examinations have made it possible to learn more about the victim, but the identity of the latter has yet to be confirmed with the results of the analyzes. The identification could take several days according to the Ile-de-France newspaper. Investigators believe, however, that the victim could be a 17-year-old person who had been missing and then declared a runaway for a few days.
The Saint-Priest building at the heart of the investigation
Investigators still know little about the victim and how she ended up in pieces in the drains. The investigations should make it possible to see more clearly and this Wednesday they were mainly concentrated on the building, in particular on the apartment on the first floor located just above the one with the clogged toilets. The accommodation is occupied by a retired couple and their son in his twenties according to information from BFM TV.
Two residents of the building, the woman who called the convenience store and another witness say they heard shouts and noises of work during the day of Sunday, January 15. But for now, it is impossible to make the link with the victim found in the pipes. The Parisian adds that at this stage, the case does not seem to be connected to any other.