Authorities Saturday tried to solve the grisly mystery of how a man’s body was mixed in with dirt in a dump truck and only discovered by the driver at an Irwindale quarry while getting rid of the vehicle’s load.
The body was apparently in the dump truck’s dirt from a downtown Los Angeles construction site, but Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said they do not suspect foul play.
“There doesn’t appear to be any trauma to the victim and no foul play is suspected at this time,” said Deputy Ryan Rouzan of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. “It’s possible the victim may have climbed into the back of the dump truck without anyone knowing and the dirt was dumped on top of him.”
It wasn’t clear if the victim may have suffocated from the dirt or if he died from some other cause.
The man’s identity and cause of death will be determined by the coroner’s office, Rouzan said.
At about 7:45 a.m. Friday, the truck driver picked up a load of dirt from a downtown Los Angeles building site, Rouzan said.
“When the truck driver dumped the dirt in a quarry in the 5100 block of Vincent Avenue in the county area of Irwindale, he discovered the victim’s body mixed in with the dirt,” the deputy said.
Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau detectives were sent to the scene and were working to determine how the victim, a black man between 20 and 30 years old, ended up in the truck’s load of dirt.
[symple_googlemap title=”Truck body” location=”5100 Vincent Avenue, Irwindale, CA ” height=”300″ zoom=”13″]
— City News Service