Leg of Mutilated Body Found in Seal Beach
by Tim Lemm
A fifth green plastic garbage bag containing the left leg of a young man whose hacked body was first found scattered in the Harbor Area Sunday was discovered Wednesday in a trash can in Sunset Beach. A joint meeting of five police agencies in two counties was planned today to determine if this latest mutilation murder is linked to three other “sexual slayings” since December. The left leg of the young man now listed simply as John Doe No 52 was found shortly after dawn in a commercial trash bin behind Broom Hilda’s Bar at 16865 Pacific Coast Highway. Tim McAuliffe of Sunset Beach told Orange County sheriff’s deputies he made the grisly discovery while looking for ornamental cut glass in the trash bin.
Deputies said the human leg was wrapped in three white paper towels and stuffed inside a 30-gallon trash can liner. A business card for a Covina pool table service and repair shop was also found inside the plastic bag. Harbor Division homicide investigators said the bag was similar to three others found Sunday along the Terminal Island Freeway and one discovered Tuesday along the Artesia Freeway in Long Beach. The first three bags contained the right leg and foot handless arms and torso of the victim. The head and hands of the young male Caucasian believed to be in his 20s are still missing. The fourth bag found Tuesday on the Artesia Freeway was empty and may have been torn open by animals.
More than 20 men from the Long Beach police search and rescue team combed the area in search of other plastic bags, but none were found. A joint meeting was scheduled at 1 pm today by homicide investigators from five body found in Seal Beach police agencies to correlate their probe into the gruesome murder. Investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department Long Beach Police Department Huntington Beach Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s Department were to meet at the Seal Beach Police Department. In addition to probing this latest murder the investigators were to determine if there is a link between it and three other slaying in beach communities during the past five months.
Although indicating that the three murders were all of a “sexual nature” authorities declined at this time to link them with the dismemberment slaying this week. The first slaying was reported Dec 26 when the partially nude body of an AWOL Marine was found strangled near the junction of the San Diego and San Gabriel River freeways in Seal Beach He has been identified as Edward D Moore 19 from Camp Pendleton. The second murder was reported Feb 6 when the nude body of an as yet unidentified man was found on the Terminal Island Freeway in Wilmington. Harbor Division police said the victim listed as John Doe No 16 had been garroted with a length 6-ft steel wire and dumped on the freeway about a quarter of a mile south of Pacific Coast Highway.
The third “sexual slaying” was reported April 14 when the body of an unidentified youth was found in Huntington Beach Police said the victim who was about 15 years old was found at Ellis Avenue and Gothard Street The youth was stabbed to death and his genitals were removed. Harbor Division police said the victim of this latest murder had also been castrated and suffered multiple stab wounds in the back. A Marine at the Terminal Island Naval Station discovered the first green plastic garbage bag about 2:15 am Sunday on the Terminal Island Freeway just south of Anaheim Street. The bag contained the right leg and foot of a young man. Three hours later police found a similar bag at the Pacific Coast Highway onramp to the Terminal Island Freeway. It contained the victim’s arms which had been severed at the shoulders and hands. The torso of the young man was discovered about 10:25 am near Alameda Street and Henry Ford Avenue. The remains taken to the county coroner’s office were believed to be that of a male Caucasian in his early 20s five feet five inch to five feet seven inches in height and weighing 130 to 145 pounds.
