Anyone who tracks homicide news has likely been wondering what's going on with the case of deceased murder suspect Marc Andrus and his alleged victim who was also his friend, Omar Shahwan. Shahwan, 58, was identified as the person whose body was dismembered and stuffed into a suitcase before being dumped near the Goodwill in SoMa last January 28. Andrus was identified as the sole suspect in the case, which was not deemed a homicide until months later. Now, as we approach the one-year anniversary of the gruesome discovery Shahwan's body was also headless and handless, and those parts still have not been found Shahwan's father, who lives in Vallejo, is calling for answers.
The remains were not positively identified until February 11, two weeks later, at which point Andrus was already dead from drug-related sepsis. There had not been enough evidence to hold him in custody after his initial arrest, and it appeared that he may have hurried his own death during the brief time in which he was free, pending another possible arrest, although that was not clear.
And surely there was a really messy crime scene somewhere?! The SFPD has not released any information on whether they ever found one.
Andrus and Shahwan were roommates at one point in the Tenderloin, and prior to Shahwan's death they had been known to bunk together with a third friend who had an SRO unit of his own at 420 Turk Street. Cocaine, heroin, and methadone were all found in Shahwan's system in his autopsy, and it seems clear that the two were drug buddies in addition to being friends, though we may never know what motivated Andrus to kill his friend, if that is what happened, or how it happened. All we know, via the autopsy, is that he died of "homicidal violence," but the exact cause may not be known until the head is discovered, if it ever is.
Shahwan's dad, Ali Shahwan, tells KRON 4, "What happened to the head of my only beloved son that has been missing? It is something that is going to affect me the rest of my life." The father is rightly concerned that he may never know why his son died, but the SFPD still isn't saying if they learned anything more.
The case remains open, however it seems likely to have gone cold and been set aside following Andrus's death.
