Investigators have identified one of three dead bodies found in a torched SUV in Orange, but they are still looking for the mysterious driver while trying to determine a motive for the killings.
Despite figuring out the name of the victim in the right-front passenger seat, authorities wouldn’t release his identity to the public, saying only that he was in his late 20s and lived in Orange.
That front passenger seat victim wasn’t as badly burned as the two men in the back seat, who were burned beyond recognition and will likely need to be identified through dental or fingerprint records, Lt. Fred Lopez said.
Identifying the passenger-seat victim has “provided a couple of leads, but I can’t go into those at this time,” Lopez said.
The SUV, already ablaze, rolled onto a sidewalk in front of a home in the 500 block of East Oakmont Avenue near Shaffer Street at 2:18 p.m. Monday.
Lopez said surveillance video captured the driver of the SUV running from the vehicle following a “low-speed” collision. The video wasn’t clear enough to provide police with a good description of the driver, he said.
Police have also obtained video of the SUV rolling down the street before it caught fire, but the footage wasn’t helpful in terms of any additional leads, Lopez said.
Autopsies on the three bodies are planned for Thursday.
Identifying the men could be key to identifying the driver, Lopez said.
The driver is only considered a person of interest at this point, because it’s still unknown how the three victims died, according to Lopez.
Police said the full-sized black SUV had not been reported stolen. Although it was identifiable by its license plate, Lopez said determining who owned it was proving to be difficult, thanks to an incomplete document trail.
“This car has switched hands so many times,” Lopez said.
Police said the vehicle was not registered to anyone in Orange County.
— Wire reports