San Francisco Police Make Arrest in Body Parts Case

San Francisco police early Saturday arrested a man on suspicion of murder in the grisly case of a dismembered body found in a suitcase in a downtown street earlier this week.

Mark Andrus, 59, was booked at the San Francisco County Jail. SFPD had initially reported his age as 60.

Police are not releasing a booking photo at this time.

Officers on Friday night detained Andrus at the Sala Burton Manor apartment building, located at 430 Turk Street, less than a mile from where the suitcase with a headless human torso was found. Police confirmed Andrus is the person of interest they have been looking for.

Police said  they received a tip from an anonymous caller at 7:26 p.m. reporting that the person of interest in a photo SFPD released Friday was staying at the apartment building.

Officers quickly responded to the area and detained two men from the apartment, and took them to the Hall of Justice for questioning. The first had a sheet covering his head as he was escorted inside a police car by officers. Then about ten minutes later, officers walked another man out of the building and he willingly got into a police car.

Officials did not say why police detained the second person, who was later released.

The San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner's office confirmed Friday the human body parts found in the suitcase in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood are those of an unidentified light-skinned male.

The suitcase was found on 11th Street near Market, just one block from Twitter's headquarters, on Wednesday afternoon. Police then made another gruesome discovery shortly after when they uncovered more body parts within a three-block radius.

The San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner's office confirmed Friday the human body parts are those of an unidentified light-skinned male.

The Medical Examiner's office said that the California Department of Justice Bureau's DNA Laboratory will be assessing in the identification process of the body parts.

The case is currently under investigation with the cause and manner of death pending.

"We are trying to determine what happened and was this body dumped. Did it happen nearby? Did it happen in San Francisco?" SFPD spokesperson Off. Albie Esparza said.

The surveillance photos released by SFPD don't show the suitcase. SFPD spokesperson Off. Albie Esparza said police will not be releasing pictures of the suitcase, but did not offer an explanation why.

SFPD spent Friday combing the neighborhood for more surveillance video and other evidence, Esparza said. "We want to make sure we thoroughly scour the area to make sure there's no other parts we may have missed," he said.

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