(UPDATED) Cops question son of missing woman for Bronx body parts
UPDATE 3: A law enforcement source has identified the victim as 45-year-old Tonya Byrd.
Byrd’s son is reportedly still being questioned by police.
UPDATE 2: Police are currently questioning the 23-year-old son of a missing woman in the neighborhood where the bags of body parts were found, a law enforcement source said.
The torso was found wrapped in a shower curtain, which is reportedly missing from the suspect’s mother’s home. A law enforcement source said cops smelled bleach in the suspect’s mother’s apartment and found an empty box for a Black & Decker Sawzall reciprocating saw. Latex gloves were also out in plain sight, the law enforcement source said.
Police are obtaining a search warrant for the missing woman’s apartment.
The son called 911 this morning to report his mother missing, sources said. Police obtained a photo of his mother from him, and the photo appeared to match the head found in the fourth suitcase.
The son reportedly told police his mother left home on Sunday or Monday with her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, supposedly to go to work. Police said he told them he had not seen or heard from her since then.
UPDATE 1: This morning around 4:30 a.m. a man walking his dog with his son came upon a garbage bag in front of 660 East 158 Street in the Bronx, according to police reports. The dog sniffed the bag and wouldn’t leave it, so the man picked up the bag and brought it to a nearby park in a housing complex at 830 Eagle Avenue.
The man reportedly told police later that he moved the bag because he saw someone circling the block in a gray Dodge Charger. He felt the person was watching him to see what he did with the bag, police said.
Police said when the man first called 911, he informed the operator that he stuck his hand in the bag and felt a “baby’s knee” or a “small leg,” but didn’t look inside the bag. When he did look inside, he found two human hands and what appeared to be a shoulder, according to police reports.
While waiting for the police, his dog found a suitcase in front of 775 Eagle Avenue that police said contained a headless torso. The torso was wrapped in a shower curtain.
Patrol cops investigating the case reportedly found two more bags of body parts, one of which included the head of what appeared to be an African-American woman with dyed blond hair.
The body parts all appeared to belong to the same woman. None were badly decomposed.
Metro’s original story is below.
At 5 a.m. this morning, a man walking his dog in the Bronx found a duffel bag of human remains, a law enforcement source said.
The dog alerted his owner to the bag, the source reported.
The remains have not yet been identified.
Check back here for for updates as the story develops.
Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat
