A golfer spotted the “severely decomposed” body of young girl floating in the Dominguez Channel in Carson earlier this week — a day before a man’s body was pulled from the same waterway.
Police have yet to identify either person or their cause of death. At a press conference Thursday, officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the only similarity between the cases is that the bodies were found in the channel, but miles apart.
The Dominguez Channel, located in southern LA County, is about 15.7 miles long.
On Tuesday, a golfer at the Victoria Golf Course in Carson called police after making the grisly discovery.
The girl, estimated to be around 6 to 12 years old, was pulled from the channel and pronounced dead at the scene.
Officials said the girl weighed between 60 and 85 pounds and stood between 4-foot-4 to 4-foot-8. She had brown eyes with short dark brown or black hair. An autopsy is set to determine her cause of death.
A day after the girl was found, staff at a nearby refinery spotted a man’s body in the channel. Authorities estimated he had been dead for less than 24 hours, with no obvious signs of trauma, officials said Thursday.
He was described as a black male between 50 and 60 years old. An autopsy is also set to determine his cause of death.
A person who routinely works out near the channel expressed alarm at the gruesome finds.
“I was going over the [Del Amo Boulevard Bridge] and when I was coming back over, that’s when I saw the yellow tape … and when you see yellow tape, you kind of know what it is,” John Hollaway told ABC 7.
“I started to get off and look down there. I just didn’t want that memory etched in my head, especially now knowing it was a child now.”
The investigation remains ongoing.
