A 47-year-old man has been criminally charged in connection with a dismembered body that was found tucked in a garbage bag in the back of a U-Haul truck in Philadelphia.
Taray Herring, 47, is charged with abuse of a corpse, theft and related crimes, according to a court briefing. A second man arrested was initially released without charge, a Philadelphia Police Department spokesman told NBC10.
Sources told NBC10 that someone called police Wednesday because he was worried about the man who was believed to be the victim. Officers did not find him at his home in northeast Philadelphia, on Sanibel Street, but they left after a neighbor told him he traveled often.
However, police said the same neighbor called them Thursday morning to report a suspicious U-Haul truck near the house. Officers stopped the truck and checked the back, where they found the bag full of body parts as well as a weapon, investigators said.
A source familiar with the investigation said police discovered more body parts in the trash of a Wawa store a few blocks away later that night.
Police have not named the victim because the forensic doctor is still in the process of identifying the body, a PPD spokesman said.
Authorities removed several exotic pets from the house on Sanibel Street on Friday. Neighbors told NBC10 that the man who lived there was known to be kind and had “never given anyone trouble.”
Herring is represented by the Philadelphia Defense Association. The group told the Philadelphia Inquirer that it did not comment on the case.