Suspect arrested in San Francisco dismembered-body case

Police have arrested a man in connection with a grisly find in which a body was found dismembered and stuffed in a suitcase in downtown San Francisco.

Mark Andrus, 59, was booked early Saturday morning on suspicion of murder, said Officer Grace Gatpandan of the San Francisco Police Department.

Andrus is the same man police had previously identified as a person of interest. In surveillance photos released Friday by authorities, the suspect was wearing a pinstriped baseball hat, a blue-and-orange jacket, and light blue jeans. Police described the man as white, in his 50s or 60s, about 5 foot 7, and possibly a transient.

Those photos led to an anonymous tip Friday evening that the man was at the 400 block of Turk Street in the Tenderloin District. He was detained along with another person.

Early Saturday morning, Andrus was arrested. The status of the second person has not been released.

The remains were discovered Wednesday afternoon on 11th Street between Market and Mission streets. Officers had received a call about a suspicious package outside a Goodwill store and made the gruesome discovery when they opened the suitcase.

The body parts were said to belong to an “unidentified light-skinned male,” according to the San Francisco medical examiner’s office.

Investigators later found additional dismembered remains in a trash can nearby, police said. Initially, police said they were unsure whether the remains belonged to a human or an animal.

The medical examiner’s office is still working to identify the dead man and determine the manner of death. The state Bureau of Forensic Services’ DNA laboratory will be needed to identify him, according to the medical examiner.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.

Twitter: @cmaiduc

christine.mai-duc@latimes.com