EAST ST. LOUIS • Zachary Irvin took a bus from tiny St. Elmo, Ill., with hopes of finding a job, his family says. Instead, he wound up bound to a chair in an abandoned building on the East St. Louis riverfront.

Irvin's life came to a tortured end a month ago inside an abandoned freight warehouse, where a series of rooms had been fashioned into a human slaughter chamber, according to search warrants obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

The case is so unusual and gruesome that police say they are investigating whether there might be other victims, although none has been found so far.

The warehouse came to police attention after Irvin's dismembered body was found burning on top of a metal landscaping cart nearby. Evidence led investigators to the large warehouse along Front Street, where they found three rooms with blood-spattered floors and walls.

Police found a meat cleaver, hacksaw, drywall saw, metal shears, claw hammer, rope, tin snips and binding material strewn about the rooms. Most of the items had remnants of a "red, blood-like substance," according to the warrants. Also in the room police found a blood stained bandage.