A human arm found in unincorporated Leyden Township on Feb. 23 had evidently belonged to a suicide victim in Kenosha County, Wis.
On Feb. 23, a train conductor noticed what appeared to be a human hand near Union Pacific train tracks north of Grand Avenue and west of Rhodes Avenue.
“It was a left arm, which had a hand, forearms and upper arm,” said Sophia Ansari of the Cook County Sheriff’s office. “It was clothed, too. The medical examiner determined it was a human arm.”
The arm was decomposed and dehydrated. The medical examiner’s office hydrated the hand and with advanced techniques was able to get fingerprints.
“It turned out that person had committed suicide by train in Kenosha County,” Ansari said. “The arm was attached to the train. The suicide was on the same set of tracks but up in Kenosha County.”
The arm apparently had gotten lodged onto a train and then dislodged in Leyden Township.
The body of a 35-year-old man from Kenosha was found Sept. 27 by a railroad inspector, according to an article in the Kenosha News. He had been struck by a southbound freight train.
“The area where this was found, it’s not an area used by pedestrians,” Ansari said. “It was balled up in some clothing. That may have masked the appearance.”
The arm is in the process of being returned to Kenosha County to be put at rest with the body.
This, incidentally, is not the first time a body part has been carried into the area on a train. In August at the Union Pacific Railyard, part of a head was discovered while a train was being serviced. A joint effort by the sheriff’s police, medical examiner and funeral directors was able to create an image of the face. Authorities are still attempting to identify that person.