DNA samples being tested to ID victim in SF body parts case

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The medical examiner is working to determine the cause of death of a prime suspect in the San Francisco body parts case after he died mysteriously over the weekend.

The victim has yet to be identified.

Everyone at the Hall of Justice is extremely tight-lipped about this case, but sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC7 News it's because they're all waiting for the medical examiner to release DNA test results, which may answer some big questions. But now since the suspect is dead, we may never know what happened.

Mark Andrus was the only suspect in this disturbing death.

Police say he died Saturday after admitting himself into a hospital. An ABC7 News source says they wanted to keep Andrus under observation for several days, but a published report says he died later in the hospital of septic shock related to drugs.

Now there's a big obstacle to solving this gruesome crime. "Certainly he was a suspect in this case, so it makes it difficult to track down possibly a crime scene or other evidence that we're looking into," San Francisco Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Monica MacDonald said.

Andrus' death came just four days after he was released from jail.

He became a person of interest after security video apparently captured him walking near 11th and Mission streets where a suitcase with a torso was found inside.

They later found a leg in a garbage container in front of nearby Firestone Tires.

Andrus was taken into custody on Jan. 30 and arrested the next day at a public housing development in the Tenderloin District.

He was visiting a friend named Mark Keever who lives there, but on Tuesday, police released Andrus because prosecutors said they didn't have enough evidence to formally charge him.

Keever says Andrus visited him at his apartment this weekend, a day before he died, proclaiming his innocence. "I went down and I said 'hi Mark how you doing? Good to see your out.' He said, 'yeah, I didn't do it, I don't know what the problem was.' So we stood up and he said, 'could I get a bag?' So I came up and got him a bag and that was pretty much it," Mark Keever said.

All eyes are now on the medical examiner. He's trying to determine through DNA samples if the body in the suitcase is that of Omar Shahwan, 58, Andrus' former roommate and friend.

His parents say he disappeared seven days before the suitcase was found.

The medical examiner still has not determined how the victim died and police have yet to find out where, making these two important leads to solving this case.

The case remains under investigation and authorities are asking anyone with information about the death to call the San Francisco Police Department's homicide unit at (415) 553-1145 or email gary.watts@sfgov.org. Anonymous tips can be left at (415) 575-4444.