Benjamin Rosario (Wild Card, Connecticut)

[dramatic music] On a hot afternoon on August 3rd, 1994, a reporter at the Connecticut Post, Dan Tepfer, was doing what most local crime journalists did back in the '90s.

He was listening to the police scanner.

I was sitting at my desk in the newsroom, and all of a sudden I hear this call from an excited cop that he had found, looked like body parts in a plastic bag.

And then followed by his dispatcher yelling at him, "Keep your voice down." [laughs] So I, I listened a little longer and I, I heard the, uh, w- the general area and, uh, I looked over.

My editor had already left for lunch, and I was like, "Oh, well, let me, let me run out there." And, uh, I saw one of the photographers lounging nearby and I said, "Hey, I think they found body parts in a, in a bag.

I think we should go out there."

Out there was Seaview Avenue in the city's East End.

The bag that had been flagged for police was in the middle of the road, and by the time Dan arrived, a Bridgeport PD patrol officer named Ernie Nandori was already at the scene.

I was thinking that it was gonna be a, a toy that was sticking out of the bag, something from Halloween.

Maybe somebody just threw out and discarded and didn't wanna pay for, you know, uh, throwing out their garbage.

We used to get a lot of that.

We used to get dumping, and people would throw garbage underneath the highways, so on and so forth.

It definitely didn't cross my mind that I was going to find a, a human remains.

There was no Halloween toy in that trash bag.

It was a full human foot, still attached to the rest of the leg.

Dan watched from 10 feet or so away as the limb was examined by police.

I had the photographer behind me, and he's like, "I don't know what they're gonna let me t- uh, take.

[laughs] What are we gonna use?" But he snapped a whole mess of pictures.

I looked around if there was anybody around.

There were some people standing by, by this time.

You know, a sizable crowd was forming.

So I went into the crowd, just asking if anybody knew anything.

Of course, nobody knew.

Not a surprise there.

Uh, and then we hung around and then I, uh, I went back and I said, uh, said to my editor, who was back from lunch at that point, I said, "Hey, uh, we got, uh, body parts in a bag." And he's like, "What?" I said, "Yeah." I said, "The photographer took some photos.