Smell of death in the air

Cadaver-sniffing dogs searched for body parts Monday along the Feather River in south Sutter County after a human leg was found in the area.

Paintballers found the unclothed limb shortly after noon Sunday at Beer Can Beach near the intersection of Garden Highway and Lee Road west of Nicolaus.

The leg was from a white male adult and had not been there for more than seven days, said Sutter County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Brenda Baker.

"This is not something you find every day," Sheriff J. Paul Parker said at the scene.

Investigators tried to determine Monday if the limb was connected to a Sacramento County missing-person case. The person's car was found a few days prior in the Kirksville/Robbins area of Sutter County. The owner was reported missing Monday, Parker said.

The car was found about two miles from the limb as the crow flies but 20 miles or more by road, he said.

"We don't know if it's related at all," he said.

Wrongdoers sometimes dispose of evidence in "very rural" south Sutter County, the first remote area they come to upon leaving Sacramento County, he said.

"It's somewhat apparent the limb was severed elsewhere and brought here," he said.

Asked how long the leg might have been there, Parker said it was still easily recognizable as a human limb.

As Parker spoke, golfers teed off across Garden Highway at River Oaks Golf Club. A cadaver-sniffing dog trotted along the edge of the course, a bell jingling on its collar.

Detectives' first priority is determining whether the person was alive or dead when the limb was severed, he said.

"We're going to investigate this as a homicide," he said. The search dogs from the Butte County Sheriff's Office can detect bodies underwater and were being taken out on boats.

The Human Identification Laboratory, part of the Anthropology Department at Chico State University, is assisting.

The search is likely to resume at 9 a.m. today, according to Sheriff's Sgt. Randall Pack.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sutter County Sheriff's Department's detective division at 822-7307. Tips can be left at the department's Web site.

Beer Can Beach is where three young Sacramento men drowned earlier this year after their vehicle entered the river. Cadaver-sniffing dogs helped located their bodies.

Contact Appeal reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com