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Woman's Torso and Leg Found in Hunts Point Trash Facility, NYPD Says

By  Trevor Kapp Eddie Small and Aidan Gardiner | January 17, 2017 9:36am 

 It wasn't immediately clear how the body parts got to the Metropolitan Transfer Station, police said.
It wasn't immediately clear how the body parts got to the Metropolitan Transfer Station, police said.
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DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp

THE BRONX — A woman's torso and leg were found in a Hunts Point trash facility Tuesday morning, NYPD officials said.

The body parts, which belong to an unidentified woman, were discovered about 4:40 a.m. inside the Metropolitan Transfer Station at 287 Halleck St., near Food Center Drive, police said.

Elias Rodriguez, 39, had just returned from a drop-off in New Jersey when he spotted the body parts his colleagues flagging down police officers, he said.

"I asked what was going on and they said they found a body. I saw the torso and the leg," said Rodriguez, who worked as an EMT for three years.

"They looked pretty fresh. It looked like this person could've been murdered last night," he added.

It wasn't immediately clear how the body parts got there, but Rodriguez said that a payloader operator first noticed the limbs in a mound of garbage he scooped up.

"He immediately shut down the loader, climbed down to confirm what he saw and immediately reported it to the supervisor at the scale house and notified the police," he said.

Rodriguez said he was later interviewed by detectives.

"They wanted information on the containers we delivered to New Jersey. They wanted to know about anything that came in," he said said.

Garbage was dropped off at the facility around midnight on Tuesday and then separated into five separate containers that police have secured: three in The Bronx and two in Kearny, New Jersey, according to the NYPD.

Officials plan to search through the containers to try finding the woman's other body parts, police said.

There were no immediate arrests and the medical examiner will determine how she died, police said.