A man in Arizona was recently accused of dismembering his friend's body and flushing his organs down the toilet.
The Phoenix Police Department announced on Wednesday the arrest of 30-year-old Carlos Guadalupe Leon Soto, who was taken into custody on July 18 on several charges including hindering prosecution, destroying evidence and concealing/destroying a dead body.
Soto's arrest comes several weeks after officers with the Phoenix Police Department first discovered a bag containing dismembered human remains "near 39th Avenue and McDowell Road."
"On June 28, 2023, just before 2:30 p.m., officers responded to a call of an unknown trouble where the caller could smell a foul odor coming from a bag near 39th Avenue and McDowell Road. When officers arrived, they found a bag in an alley that contained possible human remains," the police department said in a press release that was provided to Newsweek on Friday afternoon.
According to the press release, detectives with the Phoenix Police Department were able to confirm that the remains were human, however officers were called to the same location a day earlier for a "similar call but did not find anything suspicious."
On July 5, police were able to identify the victim in the case as 34-year-old Jose Gutierrez.
According to local news station KPHO-TV in Phoenix, investigation records showed that a man resembling Soto was seen on surveillance footage at an apartment complex located near McDowell Road and 41st Avenue. Soto was then identified as a resident of the apartment complex by other neighbors, KPHO-TV reported.
Shortly after his arrest, Soto spoke with investigators and admitted that he met Gutierrez at a Mexican restaurant on June 19. The two became friendly and Soto told investigators that Gutierrez stayed at his apartment where he eventually fatally overdosed, KPHO-TV reported, citing arrest records.
During his interview with police, Soto admitted that he dismembered Gutierrez's body with a kitchen knife and out of fear of being deported he "threw him away," KPHO-TV reported. The local news station also said that Soto told police he flushed many of Gutierrez's organs down the toilet and discarded the other body parts in a bag that was eventually found by police.
Meanwhile, a somewhat similar incident happened earlier this month in Casa Grande, Arizona, when 32-year-old Christopher Lawrence Chase was arrested for the murder of his father. According to the Casa Grande Police Department, Chase and his father got into a physical altercation on July 22, which eventually led to Chase shooting his father in the head "and then dismembering his body."
Police said he was booked into jail on charges including "Murder, Abandonment/Concealment of a Dead Body, Kidnapping, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, and Tampering with Evidence."
