Body Found Near Carlsbad Lagoon Identified

A nude body found Sunday near a Carlsbad lagoon was identified Thursday as the wife of a Marine stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station who reported her missing last week.

A spokesman for the San Diego County coroner’s office said the body of Nancy Alison White, 22, was identified through dental records. Mrs. White was reported missing Aug. 27 after her car broke down at a rest area on Interstate 8, five miles east of El Cajon.

The body was discovered at noon Sunday by two young children walking along the Batiquitos Lagoon, east of Interstate 5 in Carlsbad. Investigators believe that she was killed elsewhere and her body dumped near the lagoon. San Diego County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Hartman said Mrs. White was probably killed the same day she was reported missing.

Hartman said Mrs. White had driven to El Centro to visit her husband, Milton White, who was on temporary duty there. On the return trip to the couple’s Santa Ana home, her car began to overheat and she stopped to call her husband.

Hartman said White suggested that she call a neighbor, another El Toro Marine, to pick her up. Investigators said the man drove to the rest area but found no trace of the woman. The windows of her unlocked car were down, and the woman’s purse and an overnight bag were on the front seat. Hartman said there was no evidence that Mrs. White was forcibly removed from the car.