Alpine

The body of a 54-year-old El Cajon man was found by sheriff’s deputies near the 11-mile marker on Japatul Road in Alpine on Saturday afternoon. According to a sheriff’s spokesman, deputies discovered the body of Carlton Ausutsus Smith about 3:15 p.m., after responding to a report of an abandoned 10-speed bicycle.

Smith apparently had been shot several times, and investigators said there were signs of a struggle where the body was found.

Another witness reported seeing a blond, short-haired man in his early 20s in the area about 11 a.m. The witness saw the man walking from the area where Smith’s body was found carrying a chrome-plated, long-barrel handgun. He then entered a tan, four-wheel-drive Toyota pickup with a roll bar and off-road lights. With him in the pickup was a dark-haired woman.