Trash Can Holds a Body, Police Think

A garbage can sealed in plastic wrap and duct tape and found Wednesday in a Van Nuys storage unit could contain the remains of a 35-year-old man who was reported missing several days ago, according to police.

The trash can, which emitted a vile odor, was discovered about noon in a self-storage shed in the 15500 block of Erwin Street.

A woman who has rented the unit for several months called police when she found the can and other items that she said didn’t belong to her, according to the manager of the storage facility.

Police were awaiting a search warrant Wednesday night so they could unseal the can.

Without saying why, they said they believe that the can contains the body of a man involved in an assault six months ago in Chatsworth.

The incident included the firing of a gun, but police would not elaborate. No one was injured.

Los Angeles Police Department Det. Mike Oppelt described the missing man as a “witness/suspect” in that case.

George D. Krezinger, the storage facility manager, said the woman asked to have a lock cut off the door because the key had been lost. When a maintenance person cut the lock, the woman returned to Krezinger’s office and asked how the items that were not hers had gotten there.

“She seemed concerned,” Krezinger said. “She was not upset.”

Detectives and a bomb squad began examining the unit at 8 p.m., after they obtained a separate search warrant for it.

Oppelt said the bomb squad was called because one of the people connected to the January assault was “involved with explosives.”

No explosives were found in the storage space, he said.