Police have released surveillance photos of a suspect who they say dumped a decapitated, handless body in a south side dumpster before setting it on fire.
A resident at an apartment complex on the 2300 block of Goliad Road discovered the grisly scene at around midnight on August 21. At first, police say, the witness thought a trash bag was burning inside the dumpster. When they tried to extinguish the fire, they instead found a burned, decapitated body whose hands had been severed.
The corpse was so badly burned that authorities at first struggled to identify the victim. With the help of a tattoo found on the body, the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office eventually identified him as 43-year-old Javier T. Soto. The ME's office says he died from "homicidal violence including sharp force injury."
On Wednesday, police released some blurry stills from surveillance footage that shows a truck pulling up near the dumpster where Soto's body was found. Police are asking anyone who knows something about the crime to call homicide investigators at 207-7536 or Crime Stoppers at 224-7867. There's a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.