LINDEN

-- The remains of two bodies were found in several garbage bags in Linden at about 9:45 a.m. this morning, though the identities have not been released, according to police.

Updated coverage:

(6:50 p.m.)

Dismembered bodies of man, woman are found in six trash bags on Linden street

“Our public works people were picking up garbage,” said Linden police Detective Lt. James Sarnicki. “One of the garbage bags appeared to have part of a human body protruding from it.”

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The sanitation workers found the bags at the corner of Essex and Cranford avenues, by Peach Orchard Brook.

Sarnicki said the body parts didn’t seem badly decomposed.

“Decomposition wasn’t so bad they couldn’t tell it was human,” Sarnicki said.

Police went to the scene and verified the bags contained human remains, and police called the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and the Union County Sheriff’s Crime Scene Unit.

Many questions about the body remain, including the deceased person’s identity and how it ended up in Linden.

“How long it’s been there, I don’t know,” Sarnicki said.

Local and county investigators are still on the scene. The Union County Prosecutor's Office has scheduled a 3:45 p.m. press conference.