Berkeley apartment body found in coffin BERKELEY Police believe body may be adult son of 60-year-old man who shot and killed himself

A body was found in a makeshift coffin behind a false wall in a Berkeley apartment building two days after a 60-year-old man shot and killed himself there in front of police, authorities said Thursday.

Police believe the body may be the adult son of the man who committed suicide, Hassan Bin Ali, sources close to the case said.

Ali shot himself in the head with a handgun shortly before 6 p.m. Monday as officers arrived to investigate reports of an argument at the building at 2235 Ashby Ave.

Judging from the advanced state of decomposition, the body in the coffin had been hidden for some time, authorities said. How the person died has not been established, and police are treating the case as suspicious, said Officer Andrew Frankel, Berkeley police spokesman.

Other law enforcement sources, however, said it was possible the person had died accidentally.

Police discovered the body after they received a tip following Ali's suicide and obtained a search warrant for the two-story, eight-unit building, where Ali lived by himself on the second floor, Frankel said.

Detectives found the remains Wednesday evening in a common area on the first floor, police said. They were not more specific, but residents said the only common area on the first floor was a laundry room.

Tom Lindstrom, 61, has lived in one of two apartments on the first floor since 1989. He said Ali collected rent at the building and had removed locker space from the laundry room as long ago as 1995 to convert the area into a livable space. "It was a little bit of a bunker," he said.

The law enforcement sources said the body had been wrapped in a tarp inside the coffin. The area where the coffin was found was filled with dirt and lime, and someone had left air fresheners there to mask the smell, authorities said.

Stephen Dawson-Haggerty, 23, who lives in the building, said Ali was "a little strange," but no more strange than the average Berkeley resident.

Ali collected tenants' rent for a son, Dawson-Haggerty said. Residents identified the son as Taruk Benali, 40, who public records show owns the property.

Lindstrom said he last saw Benali several years ago.

He said Ali had owned the apartment building until he ran afoul of the Internal Revenue Service. Ali was collecting some kind of public assistance and apparently transferred ownership of the building to Benali so he could continue collecting the aid, Lindstrom said.

Ali "enjoyed being an academician" and liked to project an image of being well-schooled even though he had no degrees, Lindstrom said.

He added that Ali was "the most self-serving guy I've ever met in my life."

Lindstrom, who is a quadriplegic, said he broke his leg in August and hired an 18-year-old woman to be his live-in attendant. He was dissatisfied with her, however, and tried to fire her while he was in the hospital.

Ali, however, persuaded him to allow the woman to stay on. Lindstrom said he later found out that an acquaintance of the woman's had also moved into his apartment while he was recovering in a hospital and nursing home.

"They had turned my place upside down," Lindstrom said. "The way (Ali) took advantage of me living here was insane."