SAN FRANCISCO – Authorities searching for a missing 65-year-old man found human remains inside a fish tank in his San Francisco home, police announced Tuesday.
A relative of Brian Egg called authorities and reported him missing on Aug. 7, sparking the initial investigation, according to a San Francisco Police Department news release.
About a week later, on Aug. 15, homicide investigators went to Egg’s residence in the 200 block of Clara Street, in the city’s South of Market neighborhood.
When they searched inside, they discovered a human torso in a fish tank, according to Bay Area television station KNTV.
Authorities have not yet confirmed whether the remains are those of the missing man. They were also unable to immediately determine the gender because the body the body was already badly decomposed, according to KRON, another television station in the Bay Area.
Neighbor Scott Free told the San Francisco Chronicle he first suspected something was wrong back in June, when he stopped seeing Egg outside his home.
The following month, Free became suspicious after two strangers answered Egg’s door, prompting him to contact police to perform a welfare check on his neighbor. Officers did visit the home, but were told by the two men that Egg was away on vacation, according to the newspaper.
On Aug. 14, Free again called police after he spotted a private crime-scene cleanup crew outside the home, the Chronicle reported.
Responding officers detained one individual at the scene and entered the home were they were met by “suspicious” odors, according to the release. They also found cleaning products, which they listed as evidence.
After a thorough search of the residence, police found the headless corpse in a large fish tank, according to KNTV.
Two men were taken into custody during the subsequent investigation, police said. They were identified as 39 year-old Lance Silva and 52 year-old Robert McCaffrey, both of San Francisco.
The suspects were each arrested on suspicion of homicide, fraud, theft, identity theft and elder abuse. They were booked into jail, but the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges pending further investigation, the release stated.
Silva was transferred to a jail in Alameda County, however, where he is being held on an alleged probation violation.
An investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is urged to call San Francisco police and leave a tip anonymously at 415-575-4444.
