Dismembered body triggers probe

The alarming discovery of a dismembered body in an unplugged freezer in a Whitman storage center has triggered a criminal investigation and sent Massachusetts police to Arizona to question the man who rented it, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

The source told the Globe yesterday that Oral Wayne Nobles, a 71-year-old former Massachusetts resident, slit his wrists after the storage facility telephoned his brother's Arizona home, where he was staying, to question him about a foul odor coming from the storage unit he rented.

The source said Nobles told police he wanted to talk about a slaying in Massachusetts and one in Arizona. Four investigators from Massachusetts were on a flight last night to Arizona, where they plan to question him, according to the source.

On Friday in Whitman, police found the dismembered remains of an adult white man, whose identity has not been determined, inside the freezer in the Essex Street Storage Facility.

Police used records at the facility to trace Nobles to his brother's home in Mohave Valley, and police in Arizona found Nobles in a motel in Kingman, an hour away, the source said.

On Friday afternoon, the owner of the storage facility reported a ''strange putrid odor emanating from one of his storage units" at about 2:48 p.m. and directed police to the chest freezer, according to a statement released yesterday by the Plymouth district attorney's office.

The state medical examiner's office yesterday was unable to determine the cause and manner of death, which the Plymouth district attorney's office called suspicious.

''We do consider it suspicious given the disposal of the body," said Bridget Norton Middleton, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. ''Investigators are working hard to try to determine who this person is and how this person got there."

She said her office had no one in custody. She declined to comment further.

Officers from the Kingman Police Department in Arizona declined to comment on the investigation last night.

However, a Kingman police officer, Bryan Bredenkamp, did confirm that the local sheriff's office went to a local motel Friday afternoon to respond to a report of a man attempting suicide.

Jesse Nobles, 80, said he was at his Mohave Valley home with his brother on Friday when Oral Nobles got a call from the storage facility about an odor.

''He got all excited" after the telephone conversation, Jesse Nobles said in a telephone interview with the Globe last night.

''I could tell he was upset about something just after he got the call. I went out, and when I came back, he was gone."

Jesse Nobles said his brother told him he rented the facility in January for a woman he had been dating in Massachusetts.

The source said Oral Nobles told the storage facility owner that he would be in town tonight or early tomorrow to take care of the odor. That's when Massachusetts police sent Arizona investigators to find Nobles, the source said.

After the facility called, Jesse Nobles said, a local sergeant and detective came to his house and questioned him, but didn't say what they wanted with his brother. ''The cops were here yesterday," Jesse Nobles said. ''They wanted to question him. I didn't know where he was."

Jesse Nobles said his brother had owned two restaurants in Orange, Mass., and was now a truck driver in Arizona.

Oral Nobles had been involved in a traffic accident in Las Vegas a week ago and was recuperating at his brother's house, Jesse Nobles said.

In Whitman, many neighbors who live near the Essex Street Storage Facility would not comment last night about the discovery of the body, but Nick Barros, 26, who has lived across the street from it for the past six years said the neighborhood is quiet.

''This is very strange," Barros said. ''This place has always been very quiet. It's just that kind of neighborhood."

He said the storage center owners were good neighbors.

Michael A. Busack reported from Whitman and John R. Ellement and Adrienne Samuels contributed to this report.