Warren

Body parts found in sewer sent for examination

By Brian Louwers
C & G Staff Writer

Police said it could take weeks or months to learn anything revealing about suspected human remains found in a sewer interceptor underneath the Edison Corridor between 10 Mile Road and Frazho Dec. 20.

According to Warren Police Detective Sgt. Stephen Mills, a police sergeant trained as an evidence technician pulled what was believed to be body parts from the interceptor after a maintenance crew discovered them at about 8 a.m.

“There’s really nothing,” Mills said of the initial investigation. “We’re going to send it out to try and determine what we have.”

The suspected remains were secured and turned over to the office of the Macomb County Medical Examiner for analysis.

Investigators had no information about the identity of the remains, or how they entered the interceptor. Mills said only that they appeared to be Caucasian.

“There’s not a lot of investigative leads on this,” Mills said. “It will be an appeal to the public to try to report people who are missing.”

Mills said the suspected remains were discovered about five miles from where body parts belonging to a woman were found in a section of the interceptor in Sterling Heights in August. The suspected remains found in Warren were pulled from the same system that flows south from Oakland and Macomb counties to the city of Detroit for treatment.

An analysis of DNA from the remains discovered in Sterling Heights revealed they belonged to an unknown white female. 

Investigators in Sterling Heights also released images of a partial tattoo on the remains, which they hoped would help identify the woman.
 
A spokesman for the Macomb County Public Works Office said previously that hundreds of sanitary sewer lines from two dozen communities tie into nine larger lines that connect to the Oakland-Macomb Interceptor. The system serves 833,000 customers in the two counties.

Anyone with information about the remains can reach Warren detectives at (586) 574-4810.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Brian Louwers at brianlouwers@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1089.