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Chicago News and Weather

CHICAGO (FOX Chicago News) –

Cook County has a new medical examiner. Commissioners voted for Dr. Stephen Cina on Tuesday.

Board President Toni Preckwinkle nominated him for the job after the scandal involving unclaimed bodies at the morgue.

The Florida forensic pathologist, 46, admitted that some of his pals in the business asked him why he wanted to run the embattled morgue.

“My friends and colleagues have asked me why I want this position, as it is widely viewed as incredibly challenging in the medical examiner community,” he told Cook County commissioners during a Tuesday afternoon confirmation hearing.

“I love Chicago and Cook County, and I really love a challenge,” Cina told commissioners before they voted to hire the 47-year-old chief administrative officer at the University of Miami Tissue Bank, during a roughly two hour confirmation hearing.

But he added: “I can't do it alone,” imploring the help of county commissioners and the staff he'll manage.

And those same friends and colleagues, according to Cina, say he's up to the challenges of running the $6.8 million operation. Those challenges range from improving technology to filling vacant positions to cutting burial costs for some of the indigent, which means looking harder at the less-expensive option of cremation.

Cina is set to start Sept. 10, nine months after the Sun-Times first reported that bodies were piling up in a body storage cooler at the West Side facility— a scene so horrendous that a medical staff employee called it “sacrilegious.”

Employees said the stench was so awful — apparently from bodily fluid pooling on the floor of the cooler — that after the Sun-Times reported the complaints the state labor department launched an investigation.

The crowded cooler was the result of the slashed state funding for burials of those on public aid, but Preckwinkle also blamed morgue management.

In the end, Medical Examiner Nancy Jones announced she'd step down Aug. 1 and one of her top deputies was forced to resign this month.

Confident and steady Dr. Cina fielded questions and addressed concerns from county commissioners wanting to know everything from which celebrity he most looked like to how he'd balance running the morgue — which handles everything from homicides to unattended deaths and where more than 5,000 autopsies are conducted each year — with a forensic pathology consulting business.

He vowed to follow county rules on side jobs and a top aide to Preckwinkle, whose office oversees the medical examiner's office, will have to keep an eye on that to make sure the two jobs don't conflict.

“At first it's a 60-plus hour a week job,” he said, noting that in addition to doing autopsies, he'll be meeting with law enforcement, which relies on medical examiner's work in homicides and other investigations, as well as other work outside the office.

As for his star double?

“We could not get past who you really look like — who do you think we thought you look like?” Commissioner Deborah Sims, a South suburban Democrat, asked during a lighter moment.

Cina replied: “The wrong answer is Kenny Rogers after plastic surgery, the right answer would be Sean Connery….”

Sims admitted: “We thought you looked a lot like Burt Reynolds.”

While it's going to take money to meet some of Cina's goals, Commissioner Tim Schneider, northwest suburban Republican, reminded Cina that these are lean fiscal times in county government.

Cina said that when he started at the tissue bank a year ago they were dealing with a shortage of staffing but were still able to increase donations and revenues.

He said he's well aware of the partial hiring freeze at the county and the projected $267.5 million budget deficit next year.

“I don't believe we have a blank check for the office,” Cina said, noting that changes and improvements will be done over time.

In the end Tuesday, the county board voted 13-1 to confirm Cina, with Commissioner John Fritchey casting the sole “no” vote. Commissioner William Beavers voted “present.”

Fritchey said it's nothing personal, but that he simply had more questions than answers about Cina and his credentials.

Cina, 46, has previously worked as the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner in Fort Lauderdale.

He will be paid $300,000 a year during his five-year term, and will be allowed to keep his side job as a consultant.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.

Chicago News and Weather

MIAMI: Teen to get new genitals in Fla after rifle accident destroyed his penis

MIAMI — when Luis Canelos was 9, he picked up his father’s rifle and accidentally shot himself in the groin.The tragedy destroyed his genitalia except for a small part of his right testicle.

Now, 17, he has a chance to become whole again.

A doctor in Miami heard about Luis’ plight and reached out to his family.

In may, the teen learned he would undergo replacement surgery called phalloplasty.

The hope is that Luis will have a fully functioning penis once the operation is done, allowing him to father children in the future.

“I want to recover my body, be young again,” Luis said.

Luis and his father, Roger, 41, arrived in Miami July 16 thanks to a program called International Kids Fund Wonderfund, which is run by Jackson Memorial Foundation. The charity helps foreign kids get medical treatment and surgery they can’t receive or afford in their home countries.

Children are treated at Holtz Children’s Hospital at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center and money is raised through private and public donations to help cover the costs.

The Wonderfund organization felt compelled to help Luis “not only because of the physical situation but also because of the emotional side effects that come with the situation,” said Executive Director María Luisa Chea.

Luis’ treatment will cost $50,000, an expense his family could not afford on their own. Ronald McDonald House, a hostel for visiting families near Jackson, is providing them housing.

“my family is a poor family. We don’t have a lot of resources,” Roger said.

The Canelos family lives in a straw house in a village of 10,000 in the rural Peruvian region of Loreto, bordering Colombia and Ecuador. they share a parcel of land with other families where they grow yucca, plantains, corn and rice, as well as raise small chickens, for their own consumption.

Loreto is isolated from much of the country, Roger explained. Ambulances, for example, arrive by river.

“Everything is jungle out there,” Roger said.

Luis and Roger had never left their village before. Their journey to the United States began when they took a small boat bound for Mazan, a town in the same province. Next they crossed part of the Amazon to arrive in Quito, Ecuador. from there, father and son boarded a flight to Lima, where they stayed for two weeks before departing for Miami.

Roger brought with him a camera to document the trip to South Florida, a metropolis unlike his village. So far he has taken pictures of Metrorail and large homes.

“I never thought I could get this far,” Luis said.

The group first learned about Luis through Dr. Christopher J. Salgado, associate professor of surgery and section chief of plastic surgery at the University of Miami, Chea said.

Luis said he has found a lot of support in his large family — his mother, father, one brother and seven sisters. Keeping in touch with the family from Miami has been difficult. Their home only receives electricity at night. If the family’s sole cellphone is out of battery, they’re virtually out of reach. Luis said he misses them and wants to spend time with them again.

Luis hopes the surgery will allow him to move on with his life, or “ seguir adelante,” as he said in Spanish.

During the surgery, two medical teams will build a penis using a fibular bone from a cadaver, a procedure Salgado has performed before successfully, Chea said.

After completing his remaining two years of high school, Luis would like to attend college in Peru and become an engineer. with the help of scholarships from the local government, Roger said his son’s dream will become a reality.

In the meantime, Luis said he is calm and happy. His father noted he is very grateful to both God and the organization “that opened doors for us and has a big heart.”

If all goes according to plan, Luis should undergo surgery in August and be back in Peru around mid-September, Chea said. once back in Peru, doctors there will help Luis recover.

MIAMI: Teen to get new genitals in Fla after rifle accident destroyed his penis

Face-Chewing Victim Face Surgery, Long Recovery

MIAMI (AP) — A homeless man whose face was mostly chewed off in a bizarre, vicious attack faces a bigger threat from infection than from the injuries themselves, according to experts on facial reconstruction. He will require months of treatment to rebuild his features and be permanently disfigured.

Though gruesome, such severe facial injuries are generally not life threatening. the most serious risk to Ronald Poppo as he remained hospitalized Wednesday were germs that may have been introduced by the bites of the naked man who attacked him. one of the 65-year-old’s eyes was also gouged out.

“The human mouth is basically filthy,” said Dr. Seth Thaller, the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.

It’s not clear why Poppo was attacked Saturday afternoon by 31-year-old Rudy Eugene alongside a busy highway. Police have released few details about the attack, but surveillance video from a nearby building shows Eugene pulling Poppo from the shade, stripping and pummeling him before appearing to hunch over and then lie on top of him.

A witness described Eugene ripping at Poppo’s face with his mouth and growling at a Miami police officer who ordered him to get off the homeless man. the officer shot and killed Eugene.

Eugene’s younger brother said that he was a sweet person who didn’t drink much or use hard drugs.

“I wish they didn’t kill him so he could tell us exactly what happened. this is very uncharacteristic of him,” said the brother, who asked for anonymity to protect his family from harassment.

Police union officials representing the officer said the scene on the MacArthur Causeway was one of the goriest they had ever seen.

“He had his face eaten down to his goatee. the forehead was just bone. no nose, no mouth,” said Sgt. Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police.

Poppo has been in critical condition in recent days, but police didn’t give an update on his condition Wednesday.

Thaller, who is not treating Poppo, and other plastic surgeons said the rebuilding of Poppo’s face would happen in stages after doctors try to keep his wounds clean, salvage viable tissue and determine a plan for skin grafts. Protecting his remaining eye and maintaining an airway are priorities.

To keep the wounds clean, doctors use grafts of the patient’s skin, cadaver skin or synthetic skin to cover the exposed bone or cartilage, said Dr. Blane Shatkin, a plastic surgeon and director of the wound healing center at Memorial Hospital Pembroke in South Florida. the coverage would act like a dressing, protecting the wound as it heals.

Poppo’s lifestyle and health before the attack could determine how doctors proceed and whether they eventually consider a facial transplant, plastic surgeons said. Poppo had been homeless for more than 30 years, previously survived a gunshot wound and faced multiple charges of public intoxication, among other arrests.

“You would not just take this guy to the OR for a face transplant — you really have to go in a staged fashion. you save what you can and use what you have available first, don’t burn any bridges and move forward slowly,” Shatkin said. “And you have to see what he wants.”

Psychological care is important to the recovery, and patients need to participate in the decision-making process, said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He performed a facial transplant on a Connecticut woman who was mauled by a friend’s pet chimpanzee in 2009.

“I think the patient has to be able to cope with the injury and the trauma and needs to figure out what has happened. it often takes them weeks to understand what has happened,” Pomahac said.

The will to live is as important for Poppo’s survival as medical technology, said Ara Chekmayan, spokesman for Pomahac’s patient, Charla Nash. Nash lost her nose, lips eyelids and hands.

The chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, Ron Book, said the last time Poppo sought help from the agency finding someplace to sleep was in 2004. however, on Thursday the Jungle Island zoo on the MacArthur Causeway called for an outreach team to deal with Poppo, who had been living on the roof of the attraction’s parking garage.

Poppo was belligerent and aggressive, but he was not arrested, Book said.

The nearly 18-minute attack Saturday in the shadow of the Miami Herald headquarters was captured by the building’s security cameras.

The newspaper posted the uncensored video online late Tuesday.

In the Herald video (http://hrld.us/N9GlGB), a naked Eugene walks west on the sidewalk alongside an off-ramp of the causeway. A bicyclist speeds past Eugene just as he turns to something in the shade, in an area obscured by the tops of palm trees.

After a couple minutes, Eugene rolls Poppo’s body into the sun and begins stripping off his pants and pummeling him. later, the footage shows Eugene pull Poppo farther up the sidewalk. though the view is partially obstructed by the mass transit rail above, Eugene appears to hunch over and lie on top of Poppo.

The footage shows a bicyclist slowly pedaling past the men about halfway through the attack, followed by a car slowly driving on the shoulder of the ramp. Cars regularly pass by the scene from the beginning of the attack, but their view was likely obstructed by a waist-high concrete barrier.

Two more bicyclists cross the scene before a police car drives the wrong way up the ramp nearly 18 minutes into the attack.

An officer gets out of the car and appears to do a double-take at the scene before pulling out his gun. He fatally shot Eugene, apparently within a minute of arriving, but the shooting is obscured from view by the tracks.

Miami police have not released 911 calls. the Miami-Dade County medical examiner declined to discuss Eugene’s autopsy. it could be weeks before the results of toxicology tests are available.

Eugene left his girlfriend in Fort Lauderdale around 5 a.m. Saturday, then stopped at a friend’s in North Miami. He said he was on his way to Urban Beach Week, a series of outdoor concerts and parties on Miami Beach, according to his brother. no one knows what led to him walking naked on the causeway.

“Where’s the car, where are his clothes? we don’t know where his stuff is,” the brother said. “How did he get there naked in the middle of the daytime and nobody saw him?”

Eugene had a job detailing cars at a dealership and had been arrested a handful of times on marijuana-related charges, his brother said.

“I don’t understand any of this,” the brother said. “I know my brother, and anybody else who knows him knows he was a genuinely sweet person.”

Face-Chewing Victim Face Surgery, Long Recovery

Victim Of Cannibal Attack Faces Surgery, Long Recovery

MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — a Miami homeless man, hospitalized after a brutal and vicious attack in which 75-percent of his face was chewed off by another man, faces a bigger threat from infection than from the injuries themselves, according to experts on facial reconstruction.

He will require months of treatment to rebuild his features and be permanently disfigured.

Though gruesome, such severe facial injuries are generally not life threatening. the most serious risk to 65-year-old Ronald Poppo are germs that may have been introduced by the bites of the naked man who attacked him. one of Poppo’s eyes was also gouged out.

“the human mouth is basically filthy,” said Dr. Seth Thaller, the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.

It’s not clear why Poppo was attacked Saturday afternoon by 31-year-old Rudy Eugene alongside the MacArthur Causeway.

Police have released few details, but surveillance video from the Miami Herald building shows Eugene pulling Poppo from the shade, stripping and pummeling him before appearing to hunch over and then lie on top of him.

A witness described Eugene ripping at Poppo’s face with his mouth and growling at a Miami police officer who ordered him to get off the homeless man. the officer shot and killed Eugene.

Eugene’s younger brother said he was a sweet person who didn’t drink much or use hard drugs.

“I wish they didn’t kill him so he could tell us exactly what happened. This is very uncharacteristic of him,” said the brother, who asked for anonymity to protect his family from harassment.

His mother also spoke out Wednesday and said she wanted to remember her son’s kindness. She told CBS4′s Peter D’Oench that her son was “no zombie.”

“I feel devastated,” said the mother, who did not want her name or face revealed. “That was not him who was seen on TV doing that. He was a nice kid. He was a good kid. He gave me a nice card on Mother’s Day. Everyone says he was a Zombie. He was no Zombie. That was my son.”

“I never had any problems with him,” she said. “the police don’t have to shoot him. they could have tased him. I saw what happened on TV and I started crying. He had two baby brothers,” she said, “and they used to go to church all the time together.”

Rudy Eugene’s girlfriend said the attacker on the causeway was nothing like the man she knew and loved.

“Rudy Eugene was not no zombie or ‘Miami Zombie’ like they’re saying. He was a human being and that wasn’t him,” said the woman, who requested CBS4 News not use her name or show her face.

She described him as a “sweet loving gentleman” and a “hard working man” who worked at a car wash and dreamed of owning his own business.

She said she has no idea what caused the vicious attack but she didn’t see any signs of violence in the nearly five years they lived together.

“That wasn’t him, that was his body but it wasn’t his spirit.  somebody did this to him,” she said.  She described Eugene as religious.

“He loved God he always read the Bible he would give you knowledge on the Bible. Everywhere he went his Bible went. When he left he had his Bible in his hand.” She said Eugene left her home about 5:30 Saturday morning.

She said his last words to her were, “I love you and I’ll be back.”

READ MORE ABOUT RUDY EUGENE’S LAST HOURS

According to Miami-Dade court records, Eugene did have a troubled past and had been arrested for multiple misdemeanors, mostly marijuana-related charges. however, in 2004, there was an incident in which North Miami Beach Police had to use a Taser to subdue him during a domestic dispute involving his mother.

Click here to read the full police report from 2004.

None of his past incidents involved any level of the violence that occurred on the causeway on Saturday.

Miami Police union officials representing the officer said the scene on the MacArthur Causeway was one of the goriest they had ever seen.

“He had his face eaten down to his goatee. the forehead was just bone. No nose, no mouth,” said Sgt. Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police.

Poppo has been in critical condition in recent days, but police didn’t give an update on his condition Wednesday.

Thaller, who is not treating Poppo, and other plastic surgeons said the rebuilding of Poppo’s face would happen in stages after doctors try to keep his wounds clean, salvage viable tissue and determine a plan for skin grafts. Protecting his remaining eye and maintaining an airway are priorities.

To keep the wounds clean, doctors use grafts of the patient’s skin, cadaver skin or synthetic skin to cover the exposed bone or cartilage, said Dr. Blane Shatkin, a plastic surgeon and director of the wound healing center at Memorial Hospital Pembroke in South Florida. the coverage would act like a dressing, protecting the wound as it heals.

Poppo’s lifestyle and health before the attack could determine how doctors proceed and whether they eventually consider a facial transplant, plastic surgeons said. Poppo had been homeless for more than 30 years, previously survived a gunshot wound and faced multiple charges of public intoxication, among other arrests.

“you would not just take this guy to the OR for a face transplant — you really have to go in a staged fashion. you save what you can and use what you have available first, don’t burn any bridges and move forward slowly,” Shatkin said. “and you have to see what he wants.”

Psychological care is important to the recovery, and patients need to participate in the decision-making process, said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He performed a facial transplant on a Connecticut woman who was mauled by a friend’s pet chimpanzee in 2009.

“I think the patient has to be able to cope with the injury and the trauma and needs to figure out what has happened. It often takes them weeks to understand what has happened,” Pomahac said.

The chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, Ron Book, said the last time Poppo sought help from the agency finding someplace to sleep was in 2004. however, the Thursday before he was attacked, Jungle Island on Watson Island called for an outreach team to deal with Poppo, who had been living on the roof of the attraction’s parking garage.

Poppo was belligerent and aggressive, but he was not arrested, Book said.

A report from the group says that Poppo had been homeless before arriving in Florida. He first came to one of the group’s shelters in Miami on Dec. 27, 1999, and he stayed for 141 days. since then he stayed at another shelter in 2003 for 10 days and several other shelters for one night each.

The attack was captured by security cameras at the Miami Herald’s headquarters. It shows a naked Eugene walking west on the sidewalk alongside an off-ramp of the causeway. a bicyclist speeds past Eugene just as he turns to something in the shade, in an area obscured by palm trees.

After a couple minutes, Eugene rolls Poppo’s body into the sun and begins stripping off his pants and pummeling him. Later, the footage shows Eugene pull Poppo farther up the sidewalk. Though the view is partially obstructed, Eugene appears to hunch over and lie on top of Poppo.

The footage shows a bicyclist slowly pedaling past the men about halfway through the attack, followed by a car slowly driving on the shoulder of the ramp. Cars regularly pass by the scene from the beginning of the attack, but their view was likely obstructed by a waist-high concrete barrier.

Two more bicyclists cross the scene before a police car arrives nearly 18 minutes into the attack.

An officer gets out of the car and appears to do a double-take at the scene before pulling out his gun. He fatally shot Eugene, apparently within a minute of arriving, but the shooting is obscured from view by the MetroRail tracks.

Miami police have not released 911 calls. the medical examiner declined to discuss Eugene’s autopsy, and results of toxicology tests could take weeks.

PHOTO GALLERY:  NOTORIOUS CANNIBALS IN HISTORY

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. the associated Press contributed to this report.)

Victim Of Cannibal Attack Faces Surgery, Long Recovery

Face-chewing victim will need months of treatment, long recovery

MIAMI –  A homeless man whose face was mostly chewed off in a bizarre, vicious attack faces a bigger threat from infection than from the injuries themselves, according to experts on facial reconstruction. He will require months of treatment to rebuild his features and be permanently disfigured.

Though gruesome, such severe facial injuries are generally not life threatening. The most serious risk to Ronald Poppo as he remained hospitalized Wednesday were germs that may have been introduced by the bites of the naked man who attacked him. One of the 65-year-old’s eyes was also gouged out.

“The human mouth is basically filthy,” said Dr. Seth Thaller, the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.

It’s not clear why Poppo was attacked Saturday afternoon by 31-year-old Rudy Eugene alongside a busy highway. Police have released few details, but surveillance video from a nearby building shows Eugene pulling Poppo from the shade, stripping and pummeling him before appearing to hunch over and then lie on top of him.

A witness described Eugene ripping at Poppo’s face with his mouth and growling at a Miami police officer who ordered him to get off the homeless man. The officer shot and killed Eugene.

Eugene’s younger brother said he was a sweet person who didn’t drink much or use hard drugs.

“I wish they didn’t kill him so he could tell us exactly what happened. this is very uncharacteristic of him,” said the brother, who asked for anonymity to protect his family from harassment.

Police union officials representing the officer said the scene on the MacArthur Causeway was one of the goriest they had ever seen.

“He had his face eaten down to his goatee. The forehead was just bone. No nose, no mouth,” said Sgt. Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police.

Poppo has been in critical condition in recent days, but police didn’t give an update on his condition Wednesday.

Thaller, who is not treating Poppo, and other plastic surgeons said the rebuilding of Poppo’s face would happen in stages after doctors try to keep his wounds clean, salvage viable tissue and determine a plan for skin grafts. Protecting his remaining eye and maintaining an airway are priorities.

To keep the wounds clean, doctors use grafts of the patient’s skin, cadaver skin or synthetic skin to cover the exposed bone or cartilage, said Dr. Blane Shatkin, a plastic surgeon and director of the wound healing center at Memorial Hospital Pembroke in South Florida. The coverage would act like a dressing, protecting the wound as it heals.

Poppo’s lifestyle and health before the attack could determine how doctors proceed and whether they eventually consider a facial transplant, plastic surgeons said. Poppo had been homeless for more than 30 years, previously survived a gunshot wound and faced multiple charges of public intoxication, among other arrests.

“You would not just take this guy to the OR for a face transplant — you really have to go in a staged fashion. you save what you can and use what you have available first, don’t burn any bridges and move forward slowly,” Shatkin said. “And you have to see what he wants.”

Psychological care is important to the recovery, and patients need to participate in the decision-making process, said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He performed a facial transplant on a Connecticut woman who was mauled by a friend’s pet chimpanzee in 2009.

“I think the patient has to be able to cope with the injury and the trauma and needs to figure out what has happened. it often takes them weeks to understand what has happened,” Pomahac said.

The chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, Ron Book, said the last time Poppo sought help from the agency finding someplace to sleep was in 2004. however, on Thursday the Jungle Island zoo on the MacArthur Causeway called for an outreach team to deal with Poppo, who had been living on the roof of the attraction’s parking garage.

Poppo was belligerent and aggressive, but he was not arrested, Book said.

A report from the group says that Poppo had been homeless before arriving in Florida. He first came to one of the group’s shelters in Miami on Dec. 27, 1999, and he stayed for 141 days. Since then he stayed at another shelter in 2003 for 10 days and several other shelters for one night each.

The attack was captured by security cameras at The Miami Herald’s headquarters. The newspaper posted the uncensored video online late Tuesday (http://hrld.us/N9GlGB).

It shows a naked Eugene walking west on the sidewalk alongside an off-ramp of the causeway. A bicyclist speeds past Eugene just as he turns to something in the shade, in an area obscured by palm trees.

After a couple minutes, Eugene rolls Poppo’s body into the sun and begins stripping off his pants and pummeling him. later, the footage shows Eugene pull Poppo farther up the sidewalk. though the view is partially obstructed by the mass transit rail above, Eugene appears to hunch over and lie on top of Poppo.

The footage shows a bicyclist slowly pedaling past the men about halfway through the attack, followed by a car slowly driving on the shoulder of the ramp. Cars regularly pass by the scene from the beginning of the attack, but their view was likely obstructed by a waist-high concrete barrier.

Two more bicyclists cross the scene before a police car arrives nearly 18 minutes into the attack.

An officer gets out of the car and appears to do a double-take at the scene before pulling out his gun. He fatally shot Eugene, apparently within a minute of arriving, but the shooting is obscured from view by the tracks.

Miami police have not released 911 calls. The medical examiner declined to discuss Eugene’s autopsy, and results of toxicology tests could take weeks.

Eugene left his girlfriend in Fort Lauderdale around 5 a.m. Saturday, then stopped at a friend’s. He said he was on his way to Urban Beach Week, a series of outdoor concerts and parties on Miami Beach, according to his brother. No one knows what led to him walking naked on the causeway.

“Where’s the car, where are his clothes? we don’t know where his stuff is,” the brother said. “How did he get there naked in the middle of the daytime and nobody saw him?”

Police said that his car was towed from a Miami Beach street sometime Saturday. it was parked illegally and was one of dozens towed during the weekend festivities.

Eugene had a job detailing cars at a dealership and had been arrested a handful of times on marijuana-related charges, his brother said.

“I don’t understand any of this,” the brother said. “I know my brother, and anybody else who knows him knows he was a genuinely sweet person.”

Face-chewing victim will need months of treatment, long recovery