"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.
