A dismembered torso found in St. Tammany Parish and a severed foot in Mississippi have led authorities to identify the victim of a homicide.
It was July of 2016 when St. Tammany Authorities were alerted to the discovery of badly-decomposed human remains off U.S. 90 near the Rigolets. All authorities could determine at the time was that the victim was a man, who had died of blunt force trauma to the head. Due to the level of decomposition, investigators could not determine age or race at the time.
Then in April 2019, Biloxi Police were notified of a severed human foot found in a bucket on the property of a man who had recently died of natural causes. When the DNA from that foot matched the body found on the Northshore, detectives had new info to go on.
"After countless hours of investigation, which included conducting numerous interviews and combing over a large amount evidence, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s detectives, thanks to assistance they received from the LSU FACES Lab, the non-profit DNA Doe Project and the Biloxi Police Department, were able to establish what they believed was a positive identification of their victim," the sheriff's office announced in a news release. Detectives were able to find a living relative in the U.S., and with a DNA sample from that person, determined the body to be that of Kleanthis Konstantinidis.
With continued investigation, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office detectives developed Phillip Pointer, deceased, as the prime suspect. Pointer is the man whose death investigation led to the severed foot in a bucket in Biloxi.
"I applaud our investigators who worked this very complicated case and sought out available resources and technology to identify the victim," said St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith. "“I am thankful for the cooperation between our detectives, the St. Tammany Coroner’s Office DNA Lab, the LSU FACES Lab, the DNA Doe Project, Parabon NanoLabs and the Biloxi Police Department. They all played a role in identifying our victim and locating his next of kin."
