Body Parts in Garage Traced to Chiropractic Student

Body parts from three people were found last week in black plastic garbage bags stored in the garage of a rented house, Hermosa Beach police disclosed Wednesday.

But this turned out to be no multiple murder.

Instead, police have concluded that the arms, legs, skulls and other parts had been stored in the garage by a previous tenant, a chiropractic student who had taken them home from school.

Police are considering whether to recommend criminal charges against the student, a 33-year-old man who is now a chiropractic intern. “An overzealous student doing his homework,” Officer Paul A. Wolcott said.

One of the current tenants said Wednesday that she and her roommate discovered the body parts Friday while preparing for a garage sale.

“We didn’t believe it,” Shari Puorto, 29, said. “I was shocked. I ran out of the garage panicked. It was very surreal.”

Puorto said she and roommate Missy McLain, 28, hadn’t thought much of the black plastic bags last October when they moved into the house, a beige structure with red trim in the 1100 block of 6th Street.

Last week, Puorto said, they decided it was time for a summer cleaning binge and a garage sale.

After moving aside the boxes of glasses and clothes they had piled atop the plastic bags, Puorto said, she opened one of the bags, peered in--and saw a foot.

Puorto and McLain ran outside, composed themselves, and then returned to the garage. They opened a second bag--and this time, found a head. They called police. In turn, officers called coroner’s investigators.

“I smelled formaldehyde,” Puorto said. “That made me think it was some kind of medical thing. That’s what was making me somewhat sane.”

The third bag revealed more parts. In all, officers said they found one intact head, one partial skull, two right feet and legs, one left foot and leg, one partial pelvis, a left arm and hand, a right arm and shoulder, a left leg and hip and what officers described Wednesday as “some sheets of skin.”

The intact head, Wolcott said, is believed to be a man’s.

All the parts, Wolcott said, were covered with flesh and appeared to have been covered with a preservative while in the plastic bags.

The skin on the hands had been removed, he said, “making identification difficult.”

Neighbors were still buzzing Wednesday about what police called “this unusual incident.”

“It was crazy,” said Josh Kearney, 16, a junior at Mira Costa High School. “I came home from a skate park and saw the coroner. I thought someone had died in the garage. Wow.”

On Wednesday, detectives were finally able to find and question the 33-year-old man, who told them he had taken the parts home from school for “home study.” Authorities are determining whether he may have broken health and safety laws regulating the transfer and transportation of body parts before burial or cremation.

Cleveland Chiropractic College in downtown Los Angeles issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying that officials there were working with Hermosa Beach police to “jointly investigate a former student for allegedly removing body parts from the premises of the institution.”

Dr. Matthew Givrad, executive vice president at the college, said he was “totally appalled” by the discovery of the parts in the bags. He said it was unclear how parts could be removed from college labs, where students study such topics as muscle movement and bone structure.

“Once dissection is completed,” he said, “we ‘bag’ [the bodies], a procedure of packing them, and they are sent for cremation. We have no report of anything being missing. But in the process he may have gotten there and taken something out.”

The former student graduated nearly two years ago, Givrad said. Police said he is now studying for his chiropractor’s license. He could not be reached for comment.

Authorities added that they asked the man how he could have left the bags behind when he moved out of the house.

“Remember Steve Martin’s famous phrase: ‘I forgot!’ That’s what he told our detectives,” Wolcott said. “He said he forgot he left them there.”