Los Angeles County Criminal Lawyer Blog

The case of body parts found in the hills near the Hollywood sign has been an ongoing drama that has been a major news story, as well as a scary situation for nearby residents.

The most recent development is that police believe they have identified the victim as a 66-year-old man who went missing about a week before the body parts were discovered, the Los Angeles Times reports.

While not much information is being made public by police detectives, Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers have been watching this case to see whether detectives are actually able to put together enough evidence to make an arrest in this case.

Given the pressure of any Los Angeles murder case, but especially one where there is so much media attention and gruesome details, detectives will likely be putting in overtime on this one.

But one must be skeptical of an arrest where there is no established crime scene and where a body was dismembered and spread along the hills. According to the Times' account, dog walkers found the head during a leisurely walk after their dogs started playing with a plastic bag with the head inside.

That led police to search the hills with specially-trained dogs that are able to spot body parts, finding two hands and two feet. But the whereabouts of the rest of the body remain a mystery. Detectives acknowledge that it's certainly possible animals could have gotten to other body parts if they were placed nearby, which means they are likely never to be found.

It would take a special circumstance for a person to not only kill another person, but then to dismember then. It would also include access to tools that could accomplish that and a place where no one heard or saw anything. These are all challenges for police.

The most recent news story suggests that the man's boyfriend listed him missing Jan. 9 after not hearing from him for several days. That was eight days before his head was discovered near the iconic Hollywood sign. Family members and friends said he left their apartment Dec. 26, but they continued hearing from him up until Jan. 4. His partner reported him missing five days later.

Adding to the intrigue of the case, police recently executed search warrants at the apartment, taking a sedan from the site. A neighbor told the newspaper that he told police he remembers hearing arguing, yelling and screaming and furniture moving around a few weeks earlier. Police asked the neighbor when garbage pickup is for that apartment complex.

In most murder cases, the victim and suspect are acquainted. It's rare that these acts of violence are random. That means any associates, including a partner who allegedly was arguing around the time the person went missing, are going to be looked at very closely.

But the article also suggests that the man often walked his dog in those same hills and it's possible an argument turned fatal. But given the lack of physical evidence at the scene, detectives may have a tough time handling this one.

Remember, proving the case and simply having a theory of who may have committed it are two different things. And, unlike television, motive isn't enough for an arrest and certainly not a conviction. Police have a hard task on this one and Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys hope they don't jump to conclusions and ruin a person's life with a hasty arrest.