Dana Point Man Found Slain; Youth Is Held for Questioning

The partially burned and nude body of a Dana Point man has been discovered along Interstate 10 in Riverside County, and a teen-age acquaintance of the victim has been arrested in Northern California, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman said Friday night.

Lt. Larry Khune said the body of the man, who was not identified pending notification of his family, was found between Calamesa and Banning along the freeway. A spokesman for the Riverside County sheriff said the body was discovered early Tuesday morning, but did not say who found it.

Khune said the man was 51 years old and had lived in Dana Point.

Khune also said a 17-year-old boy was arrested in Brentwood, near Oakland, on Friday, and would be transferred to Orange County to be questioned by sheriff’s investigators.

A spokesman for the Riverside County coroner said an autopsy had determined the man died from a gunshot wound to the upper torso. He said the nude body, when found at the side of the highway, was partially burned, and further examination is pending.

“Part of the problem in making the (positive) identification is that he is burned,” the coroner’s spokesman said.

Khune said neighbors called sheriff’s officers to the victim’s home Tuesday morning, when they noticed water running out of the house, apparently from sprinklers that had turned on automatically. He said a small fire inside had been extinguished by the sprinklers, but no one was found at home.

After the fire was contained, officers obtained a search warrant and returned to inspect the inside of the house, Khune said. He said that investigation led officers to initiate a statewide search for the man and the suspect, whom sheriff’s officers described as an acquaintance of the victim.