Cause of death unknown on body found at recycling center

Jace Radke

Thursday, May 27, 1999 | 9:33 a.m.

A coroner's autopsy has come up with nothing to indicate a homicide in the death of a Las Vegas man whose body was found on a conveyor belt at Silver State Disposal's recycling center.

The man, believed to have been 32 years old, was found dead at the center, 333 W. Gowan Road, by an employee at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The body was compacted and torn up from the recycling process at the center, and a cause of death is still under investigation, Metro Police Lt. Wayne Petersen said Wednesday.

Being unable to identify causes of death for bodies found in landfills and other refuse holding centers is not uncommon, Petersen said.

"Finding bodies in these places has happened before," Petersen said. "We've even had Silver State call us after discovering someone alive in the garbage at the landfill or the recycling center."

Sometimes homeless people sleep in Dumpsters and are accidentally loaded into garbage trucks with refuse.

"You can't hear them when they are in the back of the trucks, and sometimes they make it out to a transfer station or the landfill before they're discovered," Petersen said.

On March 18 an employee at the Apex landfill discovered a body while moving garbage with a bulldozer. The employee told police he noticed a head sticking up between mounds of garbage.

That body was identified as Tzyh-Chyang Hsiung, a 39-year-old Las Vegan, but a cause of death still has not been determined.

"We found no evidence of a homicide in that case," Petersen said. "When we find bodies in landfill areas many times a cause of death is difficult to determine. It would be a lot easier if there was a bullet hole or some kind of visible trauma, but many times in these situations there isn't."

It becomes even tougher to identify a body found at a landfill when the entire body cannot be located.

In September 1995 parts of a woman were found at the recycling center.

All that could be determined from the body parts that arrived among recycling loads coming into the center is that they were from a Hispanic woman, the coroner's office said.

All of her body was never recovered and the woman is still considered a Jane Doe, Petersen said.