Human-sized heart left at car wash

updated 5:48 p.m. ET Dec. 17, 2008

PAW PAW, Mich. - A human-sized heart found at a southwestern Michigan car wash has investigators wondering whether it came from a person or an animal.

The organ was discovered in a corner of a manual wash bay at Soapy's Car Wash, Paw Paw police said. The owner of the business found it Monday on the floor of the bay, according to WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids and WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo.

Police first took the heart to an animal clinic, where a veterinarian was unable to determine its origin. The next stop was a local cardiologist, who said that while it was "consistent in size to a human heart," he could not make a conclusive determination as to its source, said police Chief Patrick W. Alspaugh.

The chief took the organ Tuesday to Lansing's Sparrow Hospital, where forensic scientists were to examine it.

"If it's a human heart, that prompts the question, 'Then where's the body?'" Alspaugh told the Kalamazoo Gazette.

He said he didn't know when the forensic scientists will give him their findings.

If it turns out that the heart came from an animal, it would not be the first time that someone has left animal parts at the car wash

The owner told police that animal parts had been left before at the car wash, but never a heart.

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