Three held after dismembered body of missing trainee rabbi is found

Three people were being questioned by police yesterday about the murder of a trainee rabbi, whose dismembered body was found in north London.

A murder hunt was launched on Wednesday after the parcelled-up torso of Andreas Hinz, 37, from Finchley, was found on a pavement in Camden. The head, arms, and legs were later recovered, each wrapped in plastic and left in dustbins in nearby gardens.

Mr Hinz was last seen at about 2am on Tuesday 2 July, leaving the Black Cap club on Camden High Street, a venue popular with gays. On Thursday night three people were arrested in connection with the murder at a flat in Caulfield Court, St Pancras Way, Camden. They were an 18-year-old woman from Eltham, south-east London, a 27-year-old man from Kingston, Surrey, and a 24-year-old man from Camden.

Mr Hinz gave up a successful publishing business in Ulm, near Stuttgart, Germany, two years ago to move to a bedsit in Finchley, north London, and study Judaism. He had just completed his second year at the Reform Synagogue's Leo Baeck College. Originally a protestant, Mr Hinz took up Jewish studies after he converted to Judaism. He was well known in London's gay and Jewish communities and had planned to visit Jerusalem later this month as part of his religious training. On Tuesday 2 July he had a meal with a friend in central London and the couple split up on Oxford Street at 10.30pm.

Dressed in black trousers, a black jacket and a skullcap covered by a white baseball cap he then went to the Black Cap club, a popular pick-up spot. Mr Hinz was reported to have spent the evening chatting to a man with a Scottish accent and to have left with him.

The couple are thought to have walked for 10 minutes to the flats near where his body was discovered. Police said that film from surveillance cameras shows the men walking together. The alarm was raised when Mr Hinz failed to turn up at a number of appointments over the next few days. These included a visit by his mother, Barbara Hinz, who flew into London on Saturday 6 July, but her son, who had paid for her flight, failed to meet her. The missing man's body was found a few hundred yards from the Black Cap after a resident complained of an "unusual smell" from a package wrapped in black plastic.

An environmental health officer discovered the remains and police found the rest of the body in bins at the nearby Caulfield flats.

Mr Hinz's 62-year-old mother and his first cousin Claudia Bobermin said in London on Wednesday that they feared Mr Hinz was dead.

Ms Bobermin added: "He was very happy here. He was excited about studying to become a rabbi and travelling to Israel later this month."

Detective Chief Inspector Ian West, who is heading the investigation, said: "At this stage, we are still trying to establish the motive for Andy's murder.''