Man, 37, arrested in killing and Dismemberment of Carina Saunders

A teenager believed to have been killed by a human trafficking gang may have had her foot sawn off while she was still alive, it emerged today.

Carina Saunders' dismembered body was found dumped in a duffel bag in Bethany, Oklahoma City, last October.

A witness told police that one of the men charged with Carina's murder beat her, tied her to a table and tortured her by sawing off her left foot, documents revealed today.

The suspect then tried to cut off the 19-year-old's right foot before the saw broke, it was claimed.

Horrific find: Saunders' remains were discovered inside a duffel bag in a field behind a Homeland grocery store

Authorities believe Carina was murdered to scare female witnesses so they would cooperate with a drug and human trafficking ring that the suspects were allegedly involved in.

The revelation came after two men held in connection with her killing were yesterday formally charged with first-degree murder, NewsOk reported.

Luis Enrique Ruiz , 37, and Jimmy Lee Massey Jr, 33, of Oklahoma City, had been identified as suspects in the case and have been in custody in the Oklahoma County jail for almost three weeks.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with his charges yesterday in Oklahoma County District Court, Ruiz planned and carried out the torture killing.

In the affidavit, a woman named Michelle Hanshaw told police she went to a house in the city with Saunders and witnessed Ruiz 'physically beat Carina Saunders and then tie her up'.

Ruiz then dragged Saunders to an upstairs room and tied her to a small table with rope and twine before using the saw on her feet, Hanshaw told Bethany police investigators.

Hanshaw, according to the probable cause affidavit filed with the murder charge against Massey, 'jumped out a window to escape' after witnessing the killing.

Elusive link: Police have not revealed the nature of the relationship between Saunders, 19, and the 37-year-old former teacher

Stephanie Howard, Ruiz's girlfriend in October 2011, told investigators that on two occasions she and Ruiz had to 'baby-sit' a girl Howard later leaed was Carina Saunders, police reported.

Ruiz said Saunders was going to be 'dealt with', Howard told investigators.

Another woman was at the house with Saunders and Hanshaw, but left soon after, police reported.

Tia Downour said she had been told there was a video of the homicide on the phone, and the phone belonged to Ruiz, the affidavit shows.

Downour told investigators she shared a room at the Bel-Aire Hotel with Ruiz in May, and when he went to the bathroom, she viewed the video, police reported.

'Downour said she watched for a few seconds until Saunders began to scream,' Bethany police Lt. JR Jencks wrote in the affidavit, adding that she told investigators she recognized Ruiz 'as the person in the video cutting off the foot of Saunders'.

Possible link: Ruiz's younger brother said Ms Saunders resembled a white woman that his brother used to 'hang out with'

Caught: Ruiz was arrested on a larceny charge after allegedly trying to steal clothes from a Sears store

Another person interviewed by detectives said Ruiz told him he 'had been the one that planned the entire incident which resulted in the death of Carina Saunders', according to the affidavit

Ruiz was arrested July 5 on a murder complaint. He and Massey are being held without bail in the Oklahoma County jail.

Neither District Attoey David Prater nor Bethany Police Chief Phil Cole would comment yesterday on charges being filed in the case.

Massey, while jailed on drug charges, shared details of the slaying with two detainees, according to a probable cause affidavit filed with his murder charge.

He told the first detainee that he participated in the homicide and said 'they cut the girl's arms and legs off,' the lieutenant wrote in the affidavit.

House of horrors: Last December, police found blood, hair, and a blood-stained knife inside an apartment where they believe Saunders was tortured and killed

Suspects: Police arrested Jimmy Massey, top left, Alejandro Rojas, top right, Michael 'Monster' Knight, bottom left, and Luis Soto, bottom right, on drug charges possibly related to Saunders' murder

The second detainee told police Massey 'gave handwritten statements in the form of passed notes' describing what parts of the woman's body were dismembered and 'perhaps more importantly,' how the body was wrapped before disposal,' the lieutenant wrote.

'Those same notes have been compared to known samples of Jimmy Massey's hand writing and appear to be from the same person on initial examination,' Jencks wrote.

Downour, who told investigators she left the house shortly after Saunders and Hanshaw arrived, said Massey, who she also knew as 'Country,' was there when she left, according to Massey's affidavit.

A confidential witness told police she was kidnapped and forced to watch as members of a human trafficking ring tortured and killed Saunders to send a message to others to cooperate with their illegal activities.

Neither prosecutors nor police would comment on that aspect of the killing.

According to court records, Massey admitted to kidnapping a woman and making her watch as Saunders was tortured and killed October 9. Massey also described how Saunders' body was dismembered and left in a field behind the Homeland grocery store 15 miles away from her home in Mustang.