U.S.

SWAT standoff in Ga. leads to grim findings: a dismembered body and suspect's violent history

Associated Press
Published | Updated

This December 2012 handout photo provided by the Effingham County Sheriff's Office shows Chad Moretz. A SWAT team sniper shot 34-year-old Moretz on Jan. 11, 2013, ending a four-hour standoff when Moretz emerged from his Effingham County home armed with an assault rifle. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Effingham County Sheriff's Office) (The Associated Press)

This Jan. 12, 2013 handout photo provided by the Effingham County Sheriff's Office shows Kevin Lambert, charged with helping hide the body of Charlie Ray of Savannah, Ga., who police say was killed and dismembered by his brother-in-law, Chad Moretz. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Effingham County Sheriff's Office) (The Associated Press)

This Jan. 12, 2013 handout photo provided by the Effingham County Sheriff's Office, shows Kimberly Moretz, charged with helping hide the body of Charlie Ray of Savannah, Ga., who police say was killed and dismembered by her husband, Chad Moretz. Police came to Chad Moretz's door to ask questions about a missing person and quickly found themselves in an armed standoff that ended in bloodshed. It was at least the fourth time in 18 months that Effingham County deputies had been dispatched to the house. Neighbors and relatives in southeast Georgia had previously accused Moretz of chasing his wife with a machete, threatening to kill a man with a handgun and of stabbing a dog with a pocket knife after it bit him. None of that could prepare investigators for what they found after the fatal standoff Jan. 11. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Effingham County Sheriff's Office) (The Associated Press)

Authorities in Georgia are trying to make sense of a brutal killing after finding dismembered body parts in the home of a man killed during a police standoff.

A SWAT team sniper shot 34-year-old Chad Moretz on Jan. 11, ending a four-hour standoff when Moretz emerged from his Effingham County home armed with an assault rifle. What investigators found afterward shocked them.

A severed human head and two hands were hidden behind a kitchen cabinet. Other body parts were found in a South Carolina storage locker. Police identified the slain man as 35-year-old Charlie Ray of Savannah.

Ray was a friend of Moretz, who had a history of family violence. Moretz's father is scheduled to stand trial in April for the 2011 slaying of his mother.