Man’s Body Unearthed but Not Yet Identified

PALMDALE —  The body of a man unearthed in a backyard Monday was in such bad condition 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 out of the ground.

They made the gruesome discovery Sunday in the back of a long-abandoned house in the 38100 block of 15th Street East in Palmdale after receiving an anonymous tip, said Deputy Carrie Stuart.

Homicide detectives chose to wait and excavate the scene Monday, after a sheriff’s deputy stood guard over the scene through the night.

The body took several hours to exhume because investigators sifted the dirt dug up in the process through metal screens to search for minuscule pieces of evidence, said Homicide Det. Tom Harris.

“It’s a long process, but we want to find every piece we can,” Harris said.

The deputy said evidence had already been found in the house.

“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.”

Neighbors said the graffiti-covered house, with refuse strewn across the lawn, had been a refuge for vagrants and runaway teenagers.

Lois Dewater, 34, who lives with her 12-year-old son across the street, said sheriff’s deputies had previously removed people who were in the house illegally.

“It didn’t make much difference,” Dewater said. “Someone always came back.”

Keith Dewater said the house also served as the neighborhood playhouse where “people would go when they were mad at their mothers.”