Sex offender arrested after police discover deep-fried body parts in waste container'

A registered sex offender has been arrested after police discovered dismembered body parts in a waste container which had been cooked in a deep fat fryer.

Police were first called to a property in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Wednesday, February 10, asking them to perform a welfare check on 70-year-old Peter Gerold, who had not been heard from in quite some time.

Officers say they then went to the man’s home and the house appeared to be properly secured and there wasn’t mail piled up.

They reported there was nothing suspicious at the time and police did not enter the home.

But the following day they returned to respond to reports of a burglary and followed a haulage truck which drove away from the scene.

Taray Herring, 47, was travelling as a passenger in the van when was pulled over by police, at which point the driver is said to have exited the vehicle.

He is reported to have told officers: “I don’t want anything to do with this, and there’s a body in the back.”

On Thursday night, after Herring talked to homicide investigators, police went out to search in waste bins behind a nearby strip mall at Proctor Road and Kelvin Avenue, near the Sanibel house and found black bags with a person’s hands and feet – all of which were deep-fried, a law enforcement source told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A person’s cut-up legs, not deep-fried, were also found in bags, the source is also reported to have said.

Sarah Barnett, a spokesperson for the Animal Care and Control Team Philadelphia, said there had been about 30 parrots inside the house, along with several bearded dragon lizards, tortoises, and koi fish and beehives in the backyard.

She added that the homeowner appeared to be breeding and selling the birds, which she said were “very highly sought-after” and can be worth thousands of dollars each.