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2 of 3 bodies found in a car in Burbank identified as missing Bakersfield men

Jan Carlos Amiama and Lucas Josh Amiama were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner's office as two of the three bodies that were found in a parked car in Burbank on Tuesday.
(Tim Berger / Burbank Leader)
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Authorities have released the identity of two of the three men who were found dead in a parked car along a secluded Burbank street on Tuesday as detectives continue to investigate the possible events that led to the grim discovery.

Jan Carlos Amiama, 21, and his 23-year-old brother Lucas Josh Amiama were reported missing from the Bakersfield area over the weekend.

Their family said the brothers were traveling to a Riverside home with a friend, Carlos Lopez.

A positive identification of the third body is pending, and a cause of death has yet to be determined, according to Ed Winter, a spokesman with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Their deaths are being investigated as homicides.

Sgt. Derek Green, a spokesman with the Burbank Police Department, said detectives are working in concert with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in investigating a home in the 5200 block of Stone Avenue where the three were said to have gone.

A search warrant for the property was issued Wednesday evening because it is a “location of interest,” according to Green.

By Thursday afternoon Green said enough evidence was found at the home to suggest a crime had taken place and the three men found in Burbank were the victims.

“Riverside [County Sheriff’s Department] is taking over,” he said. “They have enough to suggest the crime occurred in their jurisdiction.”

The bodies were discovered in the 1300 block of South Varney Street just after 7 a.m. on Tuesday after a parking officer responded to a report about a Jeep Patriot that hadn’t been moved in a while. The officer noticed an odor emitting from the vehicle and saw a person inside who appeared to be dead.

When paramedics arrived, two more bodies were found.

The car the bodies were in, a maroon Jeep Patriot with Tennessee license plates, matches the one the three were using to travel.

At the time of the discovery, Green said the bodies had no obvious signs of trauma, but the deaths were “highly suspicious” based on the street’s secluded location and proximity to the 5 Freeway.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc


UPDATES:

4:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Sgt. Derek Green.

2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with the identity of the second body.

This article was originally published at 9:20 a.m.

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