Police hope boots lead to ID of discovered legs
CRIME
JustFab boots, women’s size 10, brown with a fur lining.
Anyone who knows someone who wore that style and size of boot, and the person is missing, is asked to call the Columbus Division of Police at 614-645-4624. It might help determine whose sawed-off legs were found inside a trash-separation building on the South Side this week.
“We’re hoping that someone may have seen these on an individual and they don’t know where they’re at now and can’t account for their whereabouts,” said detective Sgt. Stan Latta.
“Very little,” Latta said when asked what clues police have. “This is a tough case; that’s why we’re reaching out.” What they do know is this: On Tuesday, a worker at Local Waste Services, 1300 S. Columbus Airport Road off Lockbourne Road north of Interstate 270, was helping separate garbage from cardboard to recycle when he saw the boots on legs sticking out of separate trash containers. Police would not identify what type of containers.
The legs were left in what could be 20 or more containers collected from the Northwest Side since March 21. That’s pretty much it. Even the gender of the person — likely female — is only a good guess because of the style of the boots.
Because decomposition had begun, the race, gender and age of the legs’ owner can’t be determined, but DNA testing is being done through the Franklin County coroner’s office to, hopefully, answer those questions, Latta said.
Police also are checking with family and friends of people reported missing in Columbus and surrounding communities.
“There’s a lot of difficulties in this case,” Latta said, which is why identifying a missing person who wore this style of boots is critical. “Then we can work backward to find where that person hangs out and where they’ve been. That might lead us to a perpetrator.”
The thing police know for sure: This was a homicide.
It wasn’t animals, or an industrial accident, which surely would have been reported. It looked like the legs were sawed off, Latta said.
“I don’t think anyone could have sustained life after this happened.”