Posted at: 07/02/2009 5:13 PM
Updated at: 07/02/2009 10:03 PM
By: Cris Ornelas, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

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Part of body found in Gallup

Investigators in Gallup are trying to figure out who sliced a man’s body, cut it in half, and then buried the pieces in two different holes on the edge of town.

The first discovery came Monday on a wind-swept mesa overlooking Gallup when a group of kids noticed a bad smell. They followed the stench until they found a partially-buried trash bag.

"They first just saw the skin and they thought it was like a pig or something like that so they pulled the entire bag out of the hole at which point they saw it was an entire upper torso of a male individual," Investigator Owen Pena with the McKinley County Sheriff's Department told Eyewitness News 4 on Thursday.

Deputies say the body was of a Native American man between the age of 30-50 years old.

Two people walking in the same area Thursday morning found the second half of the body.

Deputies say that stray dogs had been eating the body, but it’s clear it’s the lower half of a man.

They say they are waiting for DNA results to confirm the two halves go together.

Deputies say they think they know who the victim is and they’ve already notified his family.

They say the victim was a homeless man who lived in Gallup and was last seen three weeks ago.

Detectives say the upper portion of the body had stab wounds in the chest.

They also say the man was killed somewhere else.

A full autopsy will be done Friday in Albuquerque.