More human remains found at Beer Can Beach

A human head and two limbs were found over the weekend at Beer Can Beach on the Feather River in south Sutter County, not far from where a severed leg was found in November, a Sutter County Sheriff's Department official said Monday.

The body parts, including right and left arms, are those of a white male. Fingerprints may help identify him, according to Lt. Butah Uppal, who said the case is being investigated as a potential homicide.

Uppal said it has not been determined how the head and arms were separated from the body or whether they came from the same man whose leg was found earlier.

The state Department of Justice is assisting, he said.

Deputies responded about 6:10 p.m. Saturday after two fishermen reported finding the arms close to the riverbank at Garden Highway and Lee Road. As darkness fell, the search was suspended and the area secured, said Uppal.

The parts were about a half-mile from where the leg was found in November, he said.

On Sunday, about six feet up the hill from where the limbs were found, the decomposed head was found in berry bushes. It could not immediately be identified as male or female, Uppal said.

"There was some evidence of animal activity," he said.

Uppal declined to say if the head or arms bore any tattoos or other identifying marks or whether they were found in plastic bags. The leg, which was in a plastic bag, had no such marks, Sheriff J. Paul Parker said earlier.

A DNA sample was taken from the leg but the man was never located, said Uppal.

The leg, which a pathologist determined had been surgically removed, apparently while the person was alive, was found in relatively good condition, Parker said.

Six cadaver-sniffing dogs from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and the state Office of Emergency Services searched the area Sunday but found no more remains, Uppal said.

Anyone with information about the latest discovery is asked to call the Sutter County Sheriff's Department at 822-7307, or use the Leave a Crime Tip feature at www.suttersheriff.org.

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