Vigil held for missing San Francisco man Brian Egg after body found in fish tank
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The family of a missing San Francisco man, whose remains are believed to be those found inside his South of Market home, spoke for the first time at a vigil.
Family and friends gathered Tuesday night outside Brian Egg's little white house on Clara Street, where in mid-August police found a body in a fish tank without a head or hands, presumably Egg's mutilated remains. Tuesday would have been his 66th birthday.
"This of course has been an extremely difficult, confusing and sad time for our family," said Lynn Egg Jackusovas, Egg's sister who flew to the Bay Area from Florida along with Egg's brothers and extended family. Jackusovas read from a statement at the vigil, saying in part, "We want to express our sincere gratitude to the San Francisco Police Department along with the district attorney. They have treated this with the highest concern since we first reported Brian as possibly missing."
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Outside Egg's home are roses, cards and photos of the 65 year-old man who lived in San Francisco for forty years.
"I've certainly had a lot of nightmares, thinking about what happened inside that house," said Scot Free.
Free was the neighbor who called police, asking for a welfare check on his friend Brian Egg.
That was in August. The 65 year old man had already been missing for some two months. Egg's sister filed a missing persons report from Florida. Both times, police say officers received no response when they went to the house and they saw nothing suspicious.
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In mid-August, neighbors called police again after seeing a crime scene cleaning crew at the home.
This time, police searched the house and found a body in a fish tank, a body without a head or hands, which is presumed to be Egg's remains.
They detained two persons of interest. One of them is Lance Silva, who's being held at Alameda County Jail on another case.
Free and other neighbors are angry at the way police responded. "They should have taken it more seriously from the beginning," one neighbor said.
Hattie Falanagan was a longtime friend of Egg and attended the vigil, saying "my feeling with the SFPD is that they don't really follow through and so I'm kind of concerned about that, that they won't follow through with the rest of the case." Flanagan says she's met Silva and the second man who was detained. She says they were both living with Egg in his house. "They were very quiet," said Flanagan who added, "he'd just say hello and he'd look down, he never really talked to me that much at all and the other roommate, I didn't really see that much of him."
"I think they're going to have to explain what happened because on the surface it doesn't look great," said San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman about SFPD. Mandelman chairs the Board's Public Safety committee. "I've met with the Police Chief. They're doing their internal investigation of what happened and if they followed best practices.
"We're talking about a welfare check. and senior citizens if they fell inside, couldn't get up or died inside, you won't know until you enter," said Police Commissioner Petra DeJesus, who also wants answers, which she hopes to get at tomorrow's Commission meeting. "The family called and filed a missing persons report. You'd assume in a missing person's report, you just go and find a way into the home."
There are still major questions outstanding.
The Medical Examiner still has not identified the badly mutilated body. And, the District Attorney has yet to file charges against the two persons of interest.
