Local News in Brief : Police Probing Death of Woman on Freeway

Authorities were investigating the bizarre death of an unidentified woman who was run over by several vehicles after she fell or was pushed from a pickup truck on the Golden State Freeway early Sunday, the California Highway Patrol said.

The unidentified woman, believed to be in her mid-twenties, fell beneath the truck’s tires and was crushed by several other vehicles at about 2:35 a.m., on the freeway’s northbound slow lane north of Roxford Street near Sylmar, said CHP Officer Kent Buzbee.

The driver of the pickup truck fled, he added.

A Los Angeles police officer on his way home from work found the body at about 2:40 a.m, police said.

About two hours later, CHP officers arrested a La Mirada man who returned to the scene of the accident and told investigators the woman had fallen from his truck, Buzbee said.

The man, Leonal Soto, 35, of La Mirada, was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and drunk driving in connection with the death, Buzbee said. He was taken to Van Nuys Jail, where he was being held Sunday in lieu of $1,000 bail.

The three right lanes of the freeway were closed for several hours as a result of the death.

The California Highway Patrol is seeking to determine the woman’s identity and is asking any witnesses to the death to call the CHP’s Newhall office at (805) 259-1210 or 259-0652.