Who is Taray Herring? Sex offender arrested in Philly after deep fried body parts found in truck and dumpster
A Philadelphia registered sex offender was arrested after body parts, including deep-fried hands and feet, were found in the back of a U-Haul truck and a dumpster. Taray Herring was arrested on charges that included burglary, abuse of a corpse, and evidence-tampering.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Medical Examiner's Office is still in the process of identifying the victim as homicide detectives continue to investigate the death. Corporal Jasmine Reilly, a police spokesperson, told the publication that the body parts were consistent with an adult male.
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The victim's torso was found last Thursday, February 11, after police officers responded to a call of an in-progress burglary on the 1000 block of Sanibel Street in Somerton. The police then followed a U-Haul truck that drove away from the property, which was pulled over a short distance away. The police found the dismembered body inside a trash bag in the back of the truck.
The owner of the house where the burglary was reported is Peter Gerold, according to property records. Gerold owned a massage therapy service. According to the publication, someone from a different state called the police to conduct a well-being check on Gerold after not hearing from him. When the police went to his home that day, the house appeared to be properly secured and the police did not enter the home as there was nothing suspicious at the time.
Herring, 47 years old, was a passenger in the U-Haul truck, whose driver told the police after getting out of the truck, "I don’t want anything to do with this, and there’s a body in the back." The driver was taken into custody along with Herring but was not charged and was later released.
After Herring spoke to homicide investigators, police searched dumpsters behind a strip mall near the burglarized house and found black trash bags with a person's hands and feet which were all deep-fried. A person's cut-up legs, which were not deep-fried, were also found in trash bags, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Who is Taray Herring?
Herring is a registered sex offender, according to the Pennsylvania State Police's Megan Law Website. He had been arrested in May 2020 on charges of burglary, criminal trespass, theft, and related offenses, according to court records accessed by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Herring still faces a preliminary hearing on the charges but was released in June when his bail was changed to unsecured.
In 2019, Herring pleaded guilty to a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and was sentenced to 18 months of probation as part of a negotiated agreement. He was also ordered to be supervised under the Adult Probation and Parole Department Mental Health Unit, according to the publication.
Herring was convicted of indecent assault in 2015 and harassment in 2013, being sentenced to nine to 18 months in jail for the assault charge and was allowed to be immediately paroled. e was also ordered to be supervised by the probation and parole department’s mental health unit and undergo sex-offender treatment, according to court records.
The Philadelphia Inquirer also reports that Herring was sentenced to probation in 2012 after he pleaded guilty to four counts each of harassment and simple assault regarding four separate incidents the prior year. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, indecent assault, and possession of instruments of crime for an incident the prior year and was sentenced to at least five to 10 years in prison.