THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9412010487
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Police are investigating the cause of death of a man whose body was found Wednesday night among trash moving along a conveyor belt in a processing plant.
The body was found at 9:36 p.m. at the Southeastern Public Service Authority plant on Victory Boulevard.
Police, who were waiting for the state medical examiner and needed to gather evidence at the scene, initially labeled the death as ``suspicious.''
Police said the body was that of a white man dressed in a denim jacket, denim pants and white sneakers. He appeared to be in his 30s or 40s.
G.A. Brown said that it appeared the man had been dead no longer than a day or two.
Investigators will try to determine where the body came from by examining the trash it was with. Brown said police know that the garbage being processed late Wednesday did not come from any city trash trucks.
This is at least the sixth time since 1991 that a body has been discovered at a dump site or in a trash bin locally. And it's the third time a body has been found at the Portsmouth SPSA plant.
In March 1993, the body of a Suffolk man was found in the processing plant. Police said he was crushed inside a trash-compacting truck somewhere in Norfolk.
In June 1991, the headless, handless body of a Chesapeake woman was found at the Portsmouth facility. Her killing remains unsolved.
Last month, the body of a Virginia Beach woman was found in the Hampton city landfill. Investigators determined that she was accidentally crushed to death.
In July, a man was found crushed to death at the Newport News landfill. His death also was ruled accidental.
In April, a newborn, less than half a day old, was found dead in a plastic bag in a trash bin next to a Norfolk State University dormitory. A 19-year-old NSU sophomore was charged in that case.
KEYWORDS: UNIDENTIFIED BODY TRASH LANDFILL by CNB