Shocking new twist in macabre case of 54 severed hands washed up on Amur River island

The hands, severed at the wrist, were found on an island in the Amur, close to Khabarovsk, some 30 kilometres downstream from the Chinese border. 

Most were hidden in a bag which was found on the ice-clad island. 

Lurid theories about the severed limbs - seen as 27 sets of hands - have swept social media.

Was this some bizarre punishment ritual? Or the work of a vicious maniac?

Could the hands have been washed down river from China? Perhaps a Chinese mafia ring was to blame? 

Or were the hands of thieves axed possibly by a ruthless gang in retribution for stealing? 

Might the hands have been severed from recently-died corpses which had been plundered for body parts - to hide the identity of victims used in this black market trade?

But now the Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes in Russia, suggests there was nothing abnormal in storing severed hands - only in the way they were disposed of. 

It says that ‘these biological items (human hands) do not have a criminal background’ - yet it gave little extra detail. 

The appears to allude to a little-known procedure in Russia to cut the hands off unknown corpses as a means of retaining fingerprints if needed after burial. 

The idea is that the hands were stored at a forensic laboratory, and that perhaps they were then disposed of in an inappropriate way for unclear reasons. 

The IC says it is now ‘carrying out checks and studying all the circumstances of this event’.

'According to the results of these checks, a legal judgment will be made on the activities of the forensic experts of Khabarovsk city, who are in charge of utilising the above mentioned items'.

It is unclear why fingerprints could not be taken from corpses and stored on computer databases.

Local media reported that next to the remains were found medical bandages and hospital-style plastic shoe covers. 

As locals have commented on social media” ‘It’s too early to say there is no criminal intent here.’

Among other social media comments: 

'… the biological items (human hands) do not have criminal background… ? So there is nothing criminal in the fact that hands were cut off from dead bodies for the purpose of taking fingerprints?’

'Yakuza did it, no doubt, their style!' - transnational organised crime syndicates originating in Japan.

'Mysterious story… so there were 26 unidentified bodies? Quite a lot.'

'When you buried your friends or relatives, how often did you see that they did not have limbs? Let’s be honest. Why were these limbs amputated and stored in the same place and later utilised in such an odd way.'

'I wonder if this amputation has a purpose to prevent identification of the dead bodies when they are found… it would be strange to find 26-28 dead bodies without hands. This are surely not medical stuff, with only hands were cut off…'