A man and woman whose decomposing bodies were found in a Hacienda Heights home were stabbed to death, the coroner’s office announced Wednesday.
The bodies of the man and woman were discovered in the 16600 block of Carriage Place on Oct. 7, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The woman was identified as June Collins, 84, and she died of “sharp force injuries of the neck,” coroner’s Lt. David Smith said.
Coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that Collins and the man, who remains listed as a John Doe, had been stabbed and their deaths ruled homicides.
Earlier, the sheriff’s department had reported that the bodies were in poor condition, but that the deaths were being investigated as homicides.
“These two people were killed at the hands of somebody else and then they tried to clean it up, clean the scene up a little bit,” sheriff’s Lt. John Corina told reporters at the scene.
The woman, apparently the owner of the house, had not been seen for a week, and deputies had gone there to conduct a welfare check.
The bodies were found in separate parts of the residence, according to the sheriff’s department.
The woman lived at the residence with her adult son, but he has been in custody for an elder abuse conviction “for a few months,” Corina said.
The woman may have suffered from some degree of dementia and would let people into the home when they came to visit her son, even though he was jailed, Corina said. Some of those people could have information about what happened to the man and woman, the lieutenant said.
Anyone with information on the crime was urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
—City News Service