Insufficient Evidence in SoMa Body Parts Case: District Attorney

The San Francisco District Attorney's Office said on Tuesday there is insufficient evidence to charge a 59-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder in the grisly case of a dismembered body found in a suitcase on a downtown street.

"We are very disturbed by the facts of this case and are working with the San Francisco Police Department to secure the evidence necessary to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law," Assistant District Attorney Alex Bastian said in a statement.

Officials said the medical examiner has yet to determine a cause of death or positively identify the victim.

"Given the current state of the evidence, there is insufficient evidence to charge this suspect with murder," Bastian said.

Mark Andrus, 59, was detained late Friday and later arrested and booked at the San Francisco County Jail. He was released from jail late Tuesday and was escorted by Jeff Adachi, his public defender.

Adachi said Andrus does not have a place to live so his office will be helping him find a place to stay.

"We will help place him in a hotel," Adachi said. "We will assist him with re-entry -- he's been in jail three to four days."

Officers on Friday night detained Andrus at the Sala Burton Manor apartment building, located at 430 Turk Street, less than a mile from where the suitcase with a headless human torso was found.

Police said they received a tip from an anonymous caller at 7:26 p.m. reporting that the person of interest in a photo SFPD released Friday was staying at the apartment building.

The suitcase was found on 11th Street near Market, just one block from Twitter's headquarters, on Wednesday afternoon. Police then made another gruesome discovery shortly after when they uncovered more body parts within a three-block radius.

The San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner's office confirmed Friday the human body parts are those of an unidentified light-skinned male.

Andrus' former roomate at a Jones Street hotel was 58-year-old Omar Shahwan, a light-skinned man who has been missing. Those who knew the men told NBC Bay Area they lived quietly and were good neighbors.

Prosecutors said the medical examiner is waiting for DNA test results to see if it is Shahwan's body that was found in the suitcase.

Police and the District Attorney's Office said they will continue to investigate the case and work to find information that proves a link between Andrus to the body in the suitcase.