Body parts again discovered in sewer, this time in Warren

By Taryn Asher
Fox 2 News

WARREN, Mich. (WJBK) -- Lisa Nolen woke up to Warren police, fire and rescue crews in her backyard.  Sanitary workers repairing a sewer line in the Edison Corridor near Schoenherr north of Ten Mile made a disturbing discovery Thursday morning -- body parts caught on a staging platform.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Anthony Marrocco said this is the second time in the last four months workers from Inland Water Pollution Control have discovered body parts in the sewer line.

In August, underground at 15 Mile near Maple Lane in Sterling Heights, workers found about a dozen body parts caught on a sewer grate.  The sections were covered in tattoos.  A DNA test revealed the parts belonged to a larger white woman.  Her identity is still unknown.

A DNA test would still have to confirm, but police believe the parts found Thursday may have come from the same person and someone may be deliberately dumping them at different times.

"These pieces are not believed to have been put in the drain at the same time because they appear to have been preserved.  They are in too good a condition to have been there for this long a period of time," said Warren Police Det. Mel Nearing.

The Department of Public Works said there are hundreds of manholes and possibly thousands throughout Oakland and Macomb counties, that the body parts could've been dumped practically anywhere.  They could've even been disposed in someone's bathroom.

It's not know if there may have been other parts that have already made it through the 21 mile sewer line inceptor that police would have no way to recover.

"Once it gets south of Eight Mile, it gets into another pump station down there and it gets all chopped up into finer pieces and then it goes into another sewer that runs all the way down to Detroit Filtration Plant at the Detroit River," Marrocco said.  "At that point it's completely disposed of."

The body parts will also be sent to Texas for DNA testing.  Results are expected to take several weeks.