San Francisco Bartender’s Body Believed Found in Fish Tank

A headless and handless body found in the fish tank of a home in San Francisco is believed to belong to a missing area man Brian Egg, multiple media sources reported, but police have yet to positively identify the corpse due to the advanced state of its decomposition.

Scott Free, a neighbor of the 65-year-old Egg, told reporters at the San Fransico Chronicle that he felt something was amiss after he stopped seeing Egg walking his dog or watering the plants around his home.

Egg was known to have let “drifters” stay at his house, Free said.

Police Made Three Welfare Calls to the House

Free finally called the police after becoming suspicious when two strangers began to answer the door to Egg’s home, located in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.

Egg’s family, too, called the police in July after not hearing from him for some time.

Officers visited the home in July and again in early August, but “received no response at the door and saw no suspicious circumstances,” said Greg McEachern, who heads the department’s investigations bureau, according to the Chronicle.

In total, police carried out a total of three welfare calls to Egg’s home.

On one of the occasions, the men who answered the door at Egg’s house told officers that he had gone away on vacation.

A Gruesome Discovery

“He was kind of fringe,” Free told the Chronicle. “He had no job and lived on the margins. He was eccentric. A vacation seemed very implausible.”

Free told the Chronicle that Egg had long ago worked as a bartender, but had not been steadily employed in recent years.

Then, on Aug. 15, Free saw a private crime-scene cleanup crew outside Egg’s home, and again called the police.

Officers arrived with cadaver dogs and made the gruesome discovery–a headless body with no hands, decomposing inside a fish tank.

A body was found in this home at 228 Clara St., in San Francisco on Aug. 15, 2018. (Google street view)

“It’s horrifying,” Free told the Chronicle. “A dead body was in the house this entire time.”

“The police department could have done a lot more in the early stages,” said Free. “It seemed like they weren’t taking it very seriously. There was a dead body in there all along and they were standing right next to it. What if we hadn’t said anything?”

Police Reveal More Details in the Investigation

At a news conference on Tuesday, Aug. 28, law enforcement officials provided further details into the investigation.

The medical examiner is carrying out an autopsy on the body to determine whether it belongs to Egg.

A pathology lab is working to figure out how the victim died.

“We have recovered remains during the investigation, and we are awaiting the autopsy report,” said David Stevenson, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, the Chronicle reported.

“An open and active investigation continues regarding the missing person,” he said.

The police also said they had arrested two suspects on suspicion of murder, fraud, theft, identity theft, and elder abuse in connection with the case.

The suspects are Lance Silva, 39, and Robert MacCaffrey, 52, according to the police.

Silva remains in custody due to a probation violation, while MacCaffrey has been released.

No homicide charges have been filed in the case.

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