Portion Of Penis Found In Potency Punch?
Sports Energy Drink Pulled From Shelves For Investigation
POSTED: 4:00 p.m. MDT September 28, 2001
UPDATED: 1:40 a.m. MDT September 29, 2001
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- A Commerce City man said that he was drinking a fruit punch called Ora when he found a male body part inside, police said Friday.
Juan Sanchez-Marchez came to the police department Thursday with a half-empty bottle of Ora Potency Fruit Punch. He told police that he drank almost the entire bottle when he made the gruesome discovery.
"The pathologist told us they do believe it is a 3-inch section of a human penis that is intact," Commerce City Police spokeswoman Elaine Rowe said.
Sanchez-Marchez said that he bought several of the drinks at a King Soopers on E. 64th Ave. in Commerce City. He drank that particular bottle on Thursday at a construction site, where he works with his son and several other men.
"I think somebody try to play a joke on me, it was not a joke," Sanchez-Marchez said.
"The tissue presented to the coroner's office resembles a human penis but has not been
positively identified as such. At this time we are performing forensic testing to verify, if possible, whether or not it is human tissue and a definition of what it may be," Adams County Coroner Rick Amend said.
The results of this testing should be available by the end of next week, Amend added.
In the meantime, Sanchez-Marchez is anxiously waiting the results of his blood tests.
"It scares me, because I don't know if that thing was infected or something, and I'm worried about my dad," Sanchez-Marchez's son Emmanuel said.
Vancol Industries Inc. is the Denver company that distributes the Ora fruit drinks. The energy drinks are manufactured in Pittsburgh.
The company vice president is convinced that the body part was put into the bottle after it was shipped to Colorado, partly because the production date was a year ago and there are no preservatives in the drink.
"I don't see where our product would be able to preserve an object like that without some decomposition," Vancol's VP Chris Terranova said.
Additional wording on the bottle was, "Nutritional Supplement Beverage" and "Yohimbe Valarian Root, Ginkgo Biloba."
Commerce City police are investigating it as a tampering case but think it could lead to something much more serious like a murder, 7NEWS reported.
They're already checking on any possible connection to two other cases in Adams county. A severed head and a severed foot were found in two separate locations this past summer.
In the meantime, the police said that they thought it would be a good idea to alert the public about the incident. The distribution company has taken the precaution of pulling the drinks from shelves.
Juan Sanchez-Marchez came to the police department Thursday with a half-empty bottle of Ora Potency Fruit Punch. He told police that he drank almost the entire bottle when he made the gruesome discovery.
"The pathologist told us they do believe it is a 3-inch section of a human penis that is intact," Commerce City Police spokeswoman Elaine Rowe said.
Sanchez-Marchez said that he bought several of the drinks at a King Soopers on E. 64th Ave. in Commerce City. He drank that particular bottle on Thursday at a construction site, where he works with his son and several other men.
"I think somebody try to play a joke on me, it was not a joke," Sanchez-Marchez said.
"The tissue presented to the coroner's office resembles a human penis but has not been
positively identified as such. At this time we are performing forensic testing to verify, if possible, whether or not it is human tissue and a definition of what it may be," Adams County Coroner Rick Amend said.
The results of this testing should be available by the end of next week, Amend added.
In the meantime, Sanchez-Marchez is anxiously waiting the results of his blood tests.
"It scares me, because I don't know if that thing was infected or something, and I'm worried about my dad," Sanchez-Marchez's son Emmanuel said.
Vancol Industries Inc. is the Denver company that distributes the Ora fruit drinks. The energy drinks are manufactured in Pittsburgh.
The company vice president is convinced that the body part was put into the bottle after it was shipped to Colorado, partly because the production date was a year ago and there are no preservatives in the drink.
"I don't see where our product would be able to preserve an object like that without some decomposition," Vancol's VP Chris Terranova said.
Additional wording on the bottle was, "Nutritional Supplement Beverage" and "Yohimbe Valarian Root, Ginkgo Biloba."
Commerce City police are investigating it as a tampering case but think it could lead to something much more serious like a murder, 7NEWS reported.
They're already checking on any possible connection to two other cases in Adams county. A severed head and a severed foot were found in two separate locations this past summer.
In the meantime, the police said that they thought it would be a good idea to alert the public about the incident. The distribution company has taken the precaution of pulling the drinks from shelves.
Previous Stories:
- July 20, 2001: Headless Corpse Found Near Pond
- July 20, 2001: Human Head Goes To CSU For Reconstruction
- July 18, 2001: Search Resumes For Headless Body
- July 17, 2001: Head Found In Pond Was Hispanic Male
- July 16, 2001: Human Head Discovery Remains A Mystery
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