Severed arm found at Sabah disposal site leads to discovery of more body parts

KOTA KINABALU, Sabah – A normal day at work turned gruesome for a garbage collector who found a severed arm at a disposal site in the Indah Permai area, early on Feb 12.

The arm fell out of a garbage bag the worker was handling at about 7am, prompting the worker to stop and call the police immediately.

A police report was immediately made, with the police later finding a head and a torso at around 11.40am at another site, not far from the first location.

Based on initial information, the victim was believed to have been dismembered into at least seven parts using a sharp tool at a different location, before the parts were bagged and thrown away in different places.

Kota Kinabalu district police chief, Assistant Commissioner Kasim Muda, said teams of investigators and the K9 Unit were sent to the scene once the police received the call at around 8am.

“We subsequently found other body parts belonging to a woman in several nearby locations, and believe they belong to the same person,” he said in a statement.

However, the identity of the victim has yet to be ascertained, he said, stating that the police have reasons to believe that the woman might have been killed and dismembered elsewhere before her body parts were dumped in the area.

“Efforts to find the next of kin are ongoing,” Mr Kasim said, adding that the cause of death, motive, modus operandi and other related matters were being investigated.

The body parts were all sent to the forensics unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital I, and a post-mortem is scheduled to be conducted on Feb 13.

Mr Kasim said the case is being investigated as a murder.

Earlier, it was reported that after the initial discovery of the severed arm, the police subsequently found a leg at the same location and a head and a torso at another site at around 11.40am. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK