September 29, 2001 12:00am
Man Finds Penis In Bottle Of Punch - Police Don't Know If Crime Is Involved
Source: Rocky Mountain News
by: Tillie Fong
(COMMERCE CITY, PA) -- Police say a man found a penis Thursday in a bottled drink he purchased at a grocery store.
"For us, it's a mystery," said Elaine Rowe, spokeswoman for Commerce City police.
"We don't know if there is a crime involved. This could be a fraud, mutilation or attempted homicide."
Thursday morning, Juan Sanchez-Marchez, 41, a machine operator at Foothills Mail and Supply, was at work, taking his usual sips from a 20-ounce bottle of Ora Potency Fruit Punch.
After he had downed about two-thirds of the bottle, he found something in the opaque red drink.
He called over his 16-year-old son, Manuel, who also works at the shop. His boss told him that it looked like a penis and to report it to the police.
A pathologist with the Adams County coroner's office determined it was a 3-inch segment of human penis. It was cleanly cut at the base.
Authorities do not know whether the body part came from an adult or juvenile, or whether it had been taken from a cadaver or a living person.
A DNA test will be conducted on the penis, in case it may be related to an ongoing Adams County investigation where various body parts, including a head and part of a leg, have been found but not identified.
The Ora Potency Fruit Punch comes in a clear glass bottle with a label.
Sanchez-Marchez said the top was intact when he opened it.
"It's a very hard top to get off," he said.
Police do not believe that Sanchez-Marchez put the penis in the bottle.
"He's a very credible witness," Rowe said.
The drink was purchased Wednesday from the King Soopers at 6040 E. 65th Ave.
Sanchez-Marchez bought six bottles. Nothing was found in the others.
The product has been taken off the shelves at the store and from other King Soopers in the metro area.
A King Soopers spokesperson could not be reached for comment late Friday.
Rowe said the drink was dated at least a year ago and was bottled at a plant in Pittsburgh.
"They said there was no way it could have occurred there," she said.
"It's a mystery where it came from and how it got into this bottle."
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