Drugs link to bound bodies pulled from river

The bodies of two men bound with duct tape and weighted down with a makeshift anchor were found in a Philadelphia river yesterday, while a third man was taken to a hospital for stab wounds, police said.

The deaths of the two men were drug-related, police said.

Homicide Captain James Clark said officers are investigating a possible gang connection to the killings and the critical wounding of the third man.

Capt Clark said the dead men both had their throats slit and had been tortured.

The third man was found wandering in a street near where the bodies were found. The 23-year-old had also been stabbed and thrown in the Schuykill River but told police he was not weighted down so was able to swim ashore.

Police said all three men had been abducted together, contradicting an early account of what happened. Police would only say that some preliminary information proved inaccurate.

The bodies were found in the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park just before 4am yesterday, chief inspector Scott Small said.

“Both of the dead bodies had duct tape wrapped around their face. They also both appeared to be bound by their wrists and ankles. They also appeared to be tied or tethered to some piece of debris, some sort of weight used as an anchor to take them under water,” he said.

Small said police were alerted to the presence of the bodies after finding a partially dressed 23-year-old man walking along the road with his wrists bound and duct tape around his face and ankles

“He was wet, and he told us he managed to get out of the river,” Small said. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition with about nine stab wounds to his torso and both legs.

Small said the surviving victim reported that he was thrown into the back of a van in another part of Philadelphia by four or five people. He said he was robbed and stabbed before all three were tossed into the river, but he was able to free himself and climb out.