Woman’s Mutilated Body Found in Santa Ana Park

Under a full moon and floodlights, authorities late Thursday removed the body of an unidentified woman from the bushes of Santiago Park in Santa Ana.

After a five-hour investigation in the sealed-off park, about nine city police and county coroner’s officials disclosed that the woman was white and had been mutilated “in some form.”

Two onlookers said investigators had told them the body was decapitated.

The woman’s body was found about 4 p.m. by a man walking his dog, Police Sgt. Collie Provence said. It was discovered under a 6-foot-high bush near the mostly dry Santiago Creek, which crosses the park, and about 100 yards from the banks, motels and gas stations of busy Main Street.

There was no evidence that the woman had been raped, Provence said.

He would not comment on the purported decapitation, on any possible weapons used or on the victim’s age. He did not say how long the body had been there.

The investigation was unusual only “because the body has been mutilated,” Provence said. Canvas drapes were set up while investigators completed their inspection, he said, because “we don’t want to upset someone by showing them a dead body.”

In the warm twilight, about a dozen workers from nearby offices gathered to watch. One observer, Ron Newsome of Westminster, an amateur photographer, said he saw an outline of the body with a telephoto lens from about 50 feet.

“From what I could see, it looked like her neck was snapped off,” he said. “One fireman said it was the most horrible crime he’d ever seen.”

About 8:45 p.m., the body was taken to the sheriff-coroner’s office for an autopsy.

Investigators set up a command post in a mobile home on the site. They said they would stay on the scene throughout the night to secure the park and continue their investigation.

The well-kept park, lush with pine and sycamore trees as well as tall bushes, is known to attract transients, investigators said.