Body Excavated From Grave in Backyard
The body of a man unearthed from a backyard Monday was so decomposed that it could not be immediately identified, authorities said.
“The body was caked in mud,” said Deputy Adam Nathanson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Investigators from the Sheriff’s Department and the county coroner’s office worked almost all day Monday to dig up the body from its shallow grave, located when deputies found the man’s feet sticking up. They made the gruesome discovery Sunday in the back of an abandoned house in the 38100 block of 15th Street East in Palmdale after receiving an anonymous tip.
Detectives chose to wait and excavate the scene Monday, and a sheriff’s deputy stood guard over the location through the night.
The body took several hours to be exhumed because investigators sifted the dirt to search for evidence, Det. Tom Harris said.
“There are signs of a struggle,” Harris said. “There are also bloodstains in and out of the house and it looks like the body was dragged to the backyard.”
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