Heart found at car wash

[kevansvault]

Human-sized heart found at the Paw Paw car wash


Advertisement




 

Buy AP Photo Reprints




Your Questions Answered

Ask AP: Petroleum products, the Cuba trade embargo



PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) -- A human-sized heart found at a southwestern Michigan car wash has investigators wondering whether it came from a person or an animal. The organ was discovered in a corner of a manual wash bay at Soapy's Car Wash, Paw Paw police said. The owner of the business found it Monday on the floor of the bay, according to WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids and WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo.

Police first took the heart to an animal clinic, where a veterinarian was unable to determine its origin. The next stop was a local cardiologist, who said while it was "consistent in size to a human heart," he could not make a conclusive determination as to its source, said police Chief Patrick W. Alspaugh.

The chief took the organ Tuesday to Lansing's Sparrow Hospital, where forensic scientists were to examine it.

"If it's a human heart, that prompts the question, 'Then where's the body?'" Alspaugh told the Kalamazoo Gazette.

He said he didn't know when the forensic scientists will give him their findings.

If it turns out that the heart came from an animal, it would not be the first time that someone has left animal parts at the car wash

The owner told police that animal parts had been left before at the car wash, but never a heart.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

[mowt]

Ew, what a creepy town.

[embittered]

Are you sure it isn't San Francisco?

Okay, bad joke.  :|

[boogieman]

its a werewolf!

Oh...wait... werewolves eat the heart, and leave the rest.

it's a reverse werewolf!

[Nomad]

So that's where I left it.

[jenqtpie]

I have so much ADD I couldn't get past PAW PAW POLICE...LoL I'm sure those guys get alot of respect!  :lol:

[mishira]

My first boyfriend lived in Paw Paw, MI.

[quote author=kevansvault link=topic=17741.msg1120194#msg1120194 date=1229563043]
If it turns out that the heart came from an animal, it would not be the first time that someone has left animal parts at the car wash
[/quote]

Um, what?  Who just leaves animal body parts lying around?

[LizMachine]

Betcha anything is belonged to a deer or boar or someshit.
They take their huntin' seriously here in northern michigan.

and They ahve weirder named cities here. Like Flushing, or GAYLORD.

[mishira]

[quote author=LizMachine link=topic=17741.msg1121157#msg1121157 date=1229637442]
Betcha anything is belonged to a deer or boar or someshit.
They take their huntin' seriously here in northern michigan.

and They ahve weirder named cities here. Like Flushing, or GAYLORD.
[/quote]

See, that's what I was thinking, but how did they leave the heart behind?  Like, did it just fall out of the car?  And who goes to the car wash with the animal body parts still in the car?  Wouldn't you go AFTER you've taken the dead animal home?

I'm wondering if they hit a deer and kept going, didn't realize the heart was lodged in the grill or whatever, and then they took the car to the car wash, where the heart either fell out or they removed it.

And you have to admit that Michigan also has the best named town ever:  Hell.

[LizMachine]

[quote author=mishira link=topic=17741.msg1121169#msg1121169 date=1229637858]
See, that's what I was thinking, but how did they leave the heart behind?  Like, did it just fall out of the car?  And who goes to the car wash with the animal body parts still in the car?  Wouldn't you go AFTER you've taken the dead animal home?

I'm wondering if they hit a deer and kept going, didn't realize the heart was lodged in the grill or whatever, and then they took the car to the car wash, where the heart either fell out or they removed it.

And you have to admit that Michigan also has the best named town ever:  Hell.
[/quote]
Werd, Hell is amazing.

Perhaps it was a hit and run, or maybe it was in the bed of his truck after they sliced and diced teh animal, and he just hosed it on out. Idk, the rednecks are pretty hardcore here.

[DaGr]

One man's mysteriously left-behind, creepy heart is another man's "I love you" 

[DeaB4]

[quote author=mishira link=topic=17741.msg1121169#msg1121169 date=1229637858]
And you have to admit that Michigan also has the best named town ever:  Hell.
[/quote]
A good one, to be sure, but personally I'm not comfortable calling an official champ:
http://www.amusingfacts.com/ContentChannelPage.php?ID=Weird%20Towns

:-D

[LetzRyde]

[quote author=DaGr link=topic=17741.msg1121207#msg1121207 date=1229639447]
One man's mysteriously left-behind, creepy heart is another man's "I love you" 


[/quote]

[LostSouls]

What a town called Hell?  Darn it now I have to move.  I thought I was already living in hell.

Sweethearts till the end.

[nestlequikie]

I bet when they field dressed their kill they tossed the organs into a bucket/container - either for the dogs or it works great in compost heaps - and when they went to the car wash to rinse the blood from the truck bed the heart hadn't made it into the bucket/container and was rinsed out with the high pressure hose.


My ex-spouse was an avid hunter and he and a buddy opened a Deer Processing "plant " every winter.  Both my son and daughter worked for him for post-Christmas cash every year before they were old enough for a work permit.  The kids could butcher with the best of the men.

[Bella]

[quote author=LizMachine link=topic=17741.msg1121157#msg1121157 date=1229637442]
Betcha anything is belonged to a deer or boar or someshit.
They take their huntin' seriously here in northern michigan.

and They ahve weirder named cities here. Like Flushing, or GAYLORD.
[/quote]

Don't forget Climax!  It's on the way to Paw Paw (which has excellent winerys, btw) from Detroit!


[quote author=mishira link=topic=17741.msg1121169#msg1121169 date=1229637858]
See, that's what I was thinking, but how did they leave the heart behind?  Like, did it just fall out of the car?  And who goes to the car wash with the animal body parts still in the car?  Wouldn't you go AFTER you've taken the dead animal home?

I'm wondering if they hit a deer and kept going, didn't realize the heart was lodged in the grill or whatever, and then they took the car to the car wash, where the heart either fell out or they removed it.

And you have to admit that Michigan also has the best named town ever:  Hell.
[/quote]

I think that Hell is freezing over!!!

[DaGr]

[quote author=GothaBella link=topic=17741.msg1128681#msg1128681 date=1230178443]


I think that Hell is freezing over!!!

[/quote]

:lol:

[Nomad]

[quote author=GothaBella link=topic=17741.msg1128681#msg1128681 date=1230178443]
Don't forget Climax!  It's on the way to Paw Paw (which has excellent winerys, btw) from Detroit!
[/quote]

Oh, come on - how about Intercourse, PA?  I'm thinking of moving there.

[Bella]

[quote author=Nomad link=topic=17741.msg1128687#msg1128687 date=1230178930]
Oh, come on - how about Intercourse, PA?  I'm thinking of moving there.


[/quote]

Yeah, true!
That's the difference between the Flyers and the Redwings, though!
Go Stanley! (that's the octopus for those who don't know him)

[jenqtpie]

Here is an article about it being a deer heart, with picture....yuck

PAW PAW - A tip called into a Kalamazoo television station about who may have left a heart in a Paw Paw car wash bay, may have solved the organ's mystery on how it got there, according to the Paw Paw Police Department.
      The heart was found Monday, Dec. 15, in a wash bay at Soapy's Car Wash, 621 W. Michigan Ave.
      The TV station's manager called the Paw Paw Police Department and provided information on the mystery, according to Paw Paw Police Chief Patrick Alspaugh.
      Alspaugh said an individual was identified and interviewed Monday afternoon, Dec. 22.
      Alspaugh said the individual claimed the heart belonged to a deer he had shot last week. The subject said he intended to give the heart to a friend, however, it became frozen in the back of his truck. While cleaning out the truck at the car wash, the heart was left there by mistake.
      Alspaugh said the individual lives in the Paw Paw area but was not identified by police.     
      The mystery surrounding the heart's origin set off a frenzy last week as the story was picked up by the media. Late last week, 10 pages on Google, an Internet search engine, dealt with finding the heart at the car wash.
      The owner of Soapy's Car Wash told police animal parts and hair were not uncommon items to be found at wash bays, however, this was the first time for a large heart.
      The heart was transported by police to a local veterinarian who could not make a determination if the heart was human or animal.
      Police then made contact with a local cardiologist, who also could not make a determination.
      On Dec. 16, the Van Buren County Medical Examiner was contacted and advised of the complaint. Paw Paw police then contacted Sparrow Hospital Forensic Services Division, Lansing, and requested a pathologist complete an examination of the organ for positive identification.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20230173&BRD=2188&PAG=461& amp;dept_id=414962&rfi=6