GRAND RAPIDS (WKZO AM/FM) — Grand Rapids Police are now confirming that the dismembered and mutilated body found in various parts of Grand Rapids home last weekend belonged to a missing woman from Oshtemo.
Ashley Young’s family reported her missing just days before a resident of the lower story of a home on Franklin Street S.E. went into the cellar to investigate a disturbing odor and found the torso of the woman wrapped in a tarp.
Police were contacted. A search of the upstairs apartment at the home turned up blood, body parts and tools prompting them to take 29-year-old Jared Chance, who had reportedly had a relationship with the victim, into custody.
The body had been so mutilated that the traditional ways of identifying a body, by finger prints and dental records, was not going to work.
DNA samples were submitted to the State Police Crime Lab with a request that the tests be expedited, and they came back late Friday.
Grand Rapids Police say they were a positive match for Ms. Young, who was 31. No cause of death has been released.
Chance is being held on a $750,000 bond for mutilating a body and failing to report a death.
Detectives say the investigation is ongoing and request anyone with additional knowledge about the case contact Grand Rapids Police.
