Officers with the Philadelphia Police Department investigate after a man”s body is found in a suitcase on the 600 block of East Hilton Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (WCAU/YouTube).
Police in Pennsylvania are investigating after a man’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase along an alleyway — with an odor at the victim’s home seemingly providing a new lead.
On Friday at about 9:25 a.m., officers with the Philadelphia Police Department were called about a piece of luggage found in an alleyway behind a home. On the 600 block of East Hilton Street lay a gray suitcase; inside was the “human upper torso” of 53-year-old Vincent Good, the department told Law&Crime.
As officers investigated, they “uncovered additional human remains in an early stage of decomposition inside two large trash bags.” The Philadelphia Office of the Medical Examiner identified the victim as Good “and ruled his death a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds.”
Investigators spoke with nearby witnesses. According to one neighbor, the suitcase was covered in flies and was not there the day before.
“It had to be late last night or early this morning the suitcase was put there, because it wasn’t there yesterday,” Howard James told local NBC affiliate WCAU. “Now I can say I saw everything … all I saw was a suitcase. There was an odor.”
The police department said no motive has been established, and no arrests have yet been made. However, officers learned that Good lived on the 5700 block of Leonard Street — about 3 miles from where the suitcase was found.
According to sources speaking with area ABC affiliate WPVI, investigators believe this is where Good was killed. And neighbors had questions in the days before the suitcase was found.
“It smelled like a dead body. It was funky,” one neighbor said. “It was horrible. It took me two to three days to get the smell out of my house.”
“It smelled horrible,” added another. “I didn’t know if it was dead mice. I didn’t know if it was the basement because of the dogs.”
