Arrest Made in Severed Head Slaying : Crime: The 32-year-old suspect brought it to a meat market to prove he had killed a transient, police say. The body was found in a trash can.

Tenacious work by two Los Angeles police detectives led authorities Monday to a suspect in the torture and slaying of man whose severed head was found in a plastic bag in the Southwest part of the city, officials said.

Police arrested Humberto Amaya, 32, of Los Angeles after detectives found the decapitated body of a 35-year-old man in a trash can near Western Avenue and Pico Boulevard. It was about three miles from where the victim’s head had been found in a plastic bag Sunday afternoon by children playing near 4626 S. Harvard Blvd.

The name of the victim, whose head and body showed evidence of torture, was being withheld pending notification of relatives, said Lt. Sergio Robleto, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau homicide division.

Robleto credited the superb work of Detectives Carlos Brizzolara and Gary Aspinall for making the finds that enabled police to identify the victim and track down a suspect.

He said the detectives, who had been on duty since the victim’s head was found Sunday, were pursuing some tentative leads Monday when they spotted a trash truck in the neighborhood.

On a hunch, they asked the driver if he had noticed anything unusual while making his rounds. He told the detectives there had been a trash can that was too heavy to be picked up. The detectives found the can with its grisly contents inside.

The discovery of the body provided clues that led to Amaya, who was arrested at an area tailor shop.

Robleto said police were told the suspect had brought the head to a meat market to prove to skeptical acquaintances that he had done the killing. Amaya reportedly told police that he had recently met the victim, a transient, in a bar, and was angered when the victim touched Amaya’s stereo during a Saturday night visit to his home.

The victim was killed sometime late Saturday or early Sunday, Robleto said, adding that it was clear that there had been “extra efforts to exert pain on the victim.”

After Sunday’s discovery of the head, a knife was found in the grass on nearby West Vernon Avenue. A trail of blood led to the driveway of a house around the corner.