A Waianae couple made the grisly discovery of the decapitated torso of a man off Mililani Cemetery Road near Ka Uka Boulevard on Sunday.
Sheer Sotero 43, said she and her husband, Joseph, 38, had just come from visiting her grandmother’s grave and decided to look for cans and bottles for recycling.
"I jumped out and picked up a can, and he went ahead of me in the vehicle" because he saw a bottle, she said in an interview Monday.
"I could smell this really foul smell, and it was getting stronger. I recognized that smell," recalling the discovery of a dead relative in his apartment, Sotero said.
The smell led them to garbage bags that contained the torso and body parts at about 4:40 p.m. Sunday.
Police officers continued their search of the area through the night and resumed searching Monday. Police hauled out what appeared to be a body bag Monday afternoon.
But detectives would not confirm what was found, police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said.
Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the man with a large body build and distinctive tattoos.
One is on the upper arm, and another is a cross on the calf. Also, the words "Evil," "Pain" and "Hatered" (sic) are tattooed in a band around the wrist.
The Medical Examiner’s Office would not comment on the body’s condition or whether more parts were brought in Monday, deferring questions to police. Medical examiners may have to resort to DNA testing to determine the man’s identity if identification cannot be made through dental records or fingerprints.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellphone.
On Sunday the Soteros stayed at the scene for a while, and "by the time we left, they found every part of his body, but it was just spread out everywhere," Sheer Sotero said.
When she detected the foul smell, she called her husband over to an area near a drain covered by a metal grate, and "he got a whiff of it." Her husband walked to the other side of the drain, happy to find new garbage bags, Sotero said.
He picked up the bags with a stick, but they slid off and down the side of a cliff, she said. The couple watched the bags, which landed near the body part that was in a black plastic garbage bag with a blue tie.
"I thought he was joking," Sotero said. "He tried making me look."
The skin on the body "was already dark," she said. "You could see a tattoo."
Sotero said her husband was closer to the body and reported to her that it was "only his top part."
"I started getting scared," she said. "I got goose bumps."
That’s when she called 911.
They also spotted a black suitcase next to the body, she said.
She surmises that when the garbage bags were dropped down the hillside, they slid down and ripped open, exposing the body parts.
Sotero said she believes he was a big man, judging from his arm size, but suspects he was short judging from his "stubby hands."
Sotero said police took their information, took photos of her and her husband and inspected their truck, as a "standard precaution."
"Whoever did this is a very sick person," she said. She said she and her husband were unable to sleep Sunday night.
Although the road is well traveled, no one usually stops. "I guess it was meant to be," she said. "Nobody would have ever found him."
