Westminster : Rubbish Truck Yields an Unidentified Body

A man’s body that apparently had been collected with the trash was discovered Monday when a rubbish truck emptied its load, Westminster police said.

The body--a fully clothed white male, 35 to 40 years old, with reddish hair and full beard--had been placed in a dumpster along the Westminster route of a rubbish truck, Officer Larry Woessner said.

The body was discovered about 11:40 a.m. by workers at Rainbow Transfer Recycling Inc., a transfer station for rubbish in Huntington Beach.

The truck was one of many that collect and dump rubbish daily at the transfer station. The rubbish is then reloaded to larger vehicles and taken to a county landfill, Stan Tkaczyk, a Rainbow spokesman said.

The driver, whose name and company were not released by police, checked his route slip and told police that the dumpster was collected at 15600 Brookhurst St., south of McFadden Avenue, in the rear of a small shopping complex, Woessner said.

Police have not been able to identify the body.

The discovery was first reported to Huntington Beach police, who notified police in Westminster once it was established that the body was collected in that jurisdiction.

“There are no apparent signs of trauma, and the time and cause of death have not been determined yet,” Woessner said. An autopsy is scheduled.

The man wore tennis shoes, jeans, a dark shirt and black jacket. He was described as about 160 to 170 pounds and 5 feet 11 to 6 feet tall.