Thread: Human head found in Hollywood Hills

Human head found in Hollywood Hills

By The Associated Press
5:29 p.m., Jan. 17, 2012

LOS ANGELES — Police say two women hiking in the Hollywood Hills discovered a human head in a plastic bag.

Los Angeles police officer Karen Rayner says the women reported they found the bagged head in an area popular for hiking at about 3:45 p.m.

Rayner says no other body parts or blood was found nearby.

Further details were not immediately available.

Human head found in Hollywood Hills | UTSanDiego.com

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Hand found in LA park where human head discovered

By ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press
Last modified: 2012-01-18T20:45:18Z
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 - 8:17 pm

LOS ANGELES -- Investigators have found a human hand in the Hollywood wilderness park where a severed head was discovered by dog walkers.

Police say the hand was found in brush Wednesday morning in Bronson Canyon, a few miles from the Hollywood sign.

The Los Angeles Times (Severed hand found near head under Hollywood sign - latimes.com) says a coroner's cadaver dog found the hand about 50 yards from where the head was discovered on Tuesday.

The head was in a plastic grocery bag and it was pulled from the brush by a dog during a walk.

Investigators are trying to determine the man's identity as they continue to hunt for other body parts in the vast urban park.

Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith says the man may have been killed elsewhere in recent days and his body dumped in the park. He says animals may have moved some of the remains.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A dozen Los Angeles robbery-homicide investigators and a coroner's cadaver dog searched for clues through the brush of an urban wilderness park on Wednesday, a day after dog-walkers found a man's head in a plastic bag.

The dog walkers called police Tuesday afternoon after discovering the head of a man in a plastic grocery sack. Authorities believe the man had been in his 40s, 50s or 60s.

"One of their dogs pulled it out of the brush" and began shaking it, police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said. "It didn't look like it had been there for a long time."

The grisly discovery in the Hollywood Hills was made perhaps a half-mile from the entrance to a section of giant Griffith Park that is popular with tourists and locals, particularly dog owners. Investigators questioned neighbors outside the park entrance to learn whether they saw anything suspicious, Smith said.

"We don't believe the guy was killed here," he said. "There's no sign of a struggle and no sign of other body parts."

The man wasn't immediately identified. Police were checking reports of missing persons and coroner's investigators will check dental records.

Smith noted that the canyon is well-traveled by both cars and hikers. A paved road leads from the gated entrance and winds around picnic areas and a children's playground before connecting with a trail that eventually winds up near the Hollywood sign.

A second trail leads to a short tunnel known locally as the Batcave because it was used for a scene in the 1960s "Batman" series. It also is frequently used for filming TV and movie productions.

Hand found in LA park where human head discovered - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Feet found in LA park where head, hands discovered

By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press
5:33 p.m., Jan. 18, 2012

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police have discovered two feet in the same area where a severed human head and two hands were found, and investigators are continuing to search for more remains.

Officer Cleon Joseph says authorities will need to run tests to confirm that the body parts belong to the same person.

Dog walkers found the head found wrapped in a plastic bag on Tuesday. The hands were discovered nearby earlier Wednesday.

Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith says the man may have been killed elsewhere in recent days and his body dumped in the park in the Hollywood Hills. He says animals may have moved some of the remains.

Investigators are trying to determine the man's identity. Police were checking reports of missing persons and coroner's investigators will check dental records.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Police searched for more body parts Wednesday after finding two human hands in the Hollywood hills where a head in a plastic bag was discovered by dog walkers.

The first hand was discovered in Bronson Canyon as dozens of police officers, including homicide investigators, combed the brush along a winding trail a few miles below the Hollywood sign. A coroner's cadaver dog found it about 50 yards from where the head was discovered on Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times ( Severed hand found near head under Hollywood sign - latimes.com ) reported.

Details weren't immediately available on where the second hand was found later Tuesday afternoon, or what condition it was in.

The remains are believed to have come from the same man, but police are still working to confirm that through testing. Wild animals in the park may have some other body parts, police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

The head of a man in his 40s, 50s or 60s was found about a half-mile inside the gated canyon road, which is part of the vast Griffith Park.

"One of the dogs ran into the brush and came out carrying a plastic grocery bag. As the dogs shook the plastic grocery bag the severed human head fell out of the bag and onto the ground." Smith told KCBS-TV ( Second Severed Hand Discovered Near Human Head In Hollywood Hills « CBS Los Angeles ).

The man may have been killed elsewhere in recent days and his body dumped in the park, Smith said.

The man wasn't immediately identified. Police were checking reports of missing persons and coroner's investigators will check dental records.

Smith noted that the canyon is well-traveled by both cars and hikers. A paved road winds around picnic areas and a children's playground before connecting with a trail that eventually winds up near the Hollywood sign.

A second trail leads to a short tunnel known locally as the Batcave because it was used for a scene in the 1960s "Batman" series. It also is frequently used for filming TV and movie productions.

Feet found in LA park where head, hands discovered | UTSanDiego.com

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LAPD probes possible connection of gay porn star to Hollywood dismemberment

By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published June 08, 2012
FoxNews.com


Detectives in Los Angeles are probing the possibility that the gay porn star suspected of killing and chopping up a Chinese student in Canada could be connected to an unsolved murder in Hollywood Hills earlier this year.

Detectives want to know where suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta was in January, when the hands and feet of 66-year-old Hervey Medellin were found by two dog walkers near the famous "Hollywood" sign in Hollywood Hills, Officer Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, told FoxNews.com.

“They’re just trying to see if there are any similarities,” Eisenman told FoxNews.com early Friday of the two cases.

Magnotta, 29, was arrested in Berlin on Monday following an international manhunt and is suspected of killing and dismembering Jun Lin, 33, before mailing some of his body parts to Canadian political parties in Ottawa and schools in Vancouver. Canadian police have said they will conduct DNA tests to confirm a match. Lin’s head remains missing.

Authorities in Montreal believe Magnotta has spent time on the West Coast. Montreal Police Department Cmdr. Denis Mainville has said investigators will scour hundreds of homicide case throughout the past three decades for any possible links to Magnotta.

Investigators have said Magnotta videotaped the dismemberment of Lin inside his apartment and posted it online May 25. The videotape also depicts the suspect eating parts of the body, according to police. A copy of the video viewed by The Associated Press did not show cannibalism, but police suggested they have a more extensive, unedited version.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles-based animal rights group says Magnotta first appeared on advocates’ radar in 2010 when he started posting “horrific” videos of animal abuse online.

“The videos began with a cat being fed to a snake then progressed to the torture and suffocating of kittens,” Last Chance for Animals (LCA) said in a statement posted on its website. “LCA was one of the few organizations that did not dismiss the videos as fake. LCA reached out to law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, and to Interpol about the videos but didn’t receive a response.”

Using thousands of page of pseudonyms and online posts by Magnotta throughout the years, LCA’s Special Investigations Unit predicted the suspect would check websites and videos of himself from mobile devices and Internet cafes while evading authorities.

In an attempt to lure Magnotta, the group posted a video about him, dubbing the former porn actor “The James Dean Killer.” A second video entitled “1 Man 1 Icon” was also posted to continue the ruse, utilizing family photos of Magnotta not yet published in mainstream media. The sites, according to the group, quickly received numerous hits from France and Germany when Magnotta was believed to be in those countries.

When Magnotta was apprehended and arrested in Berlin after days in Paris, he reportedly told investigators he was watching YouTube videos of himself.

“This case clearly demonstrates a link between cruelty to animals and violence toward humans,” the group’s statement continued. “LCA is pushing for tougher sentences to be handed out to animal abusers and an ‘animal abusers’ offenders list.”

On Thursday, German prosecutors said a decision on Magnotta’s extradition could be made within days. The decision isn’t expected before next week, spokesman Martin Steltner told The Associated Press.

Magnotta’s court-appointed attorney, Evelyn Ascher, declined comment on Thursday, saying in an email: “Until further notice I am not able to give any interviews, as there are too many requests.”

A male-to-female transsexual who claims she dated Magnotta said he desired to be “legendary” by any means possible.

“I think he did it to be famous," Nina Arsenault told HLN’s Dr. Drew. "He wanted to be legendary in any way he could be.”

Arsenault, who said she fell for Magnotta 10 years ago, said the man she knew back then was not capable of the “heinous” alleged crimes.

“He was the first man who showed any kind of interest in me” Arsenault said. “I had high hopes at the beginning. At first he was extremely charming — sort of the 'life of the party.' As time went on, I began to see his manipulations and a lot of lies.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LAPD probes possible connection of gay porn star to Hollywood dismemberment | Fox News

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