Woman Found Dead in Car Near Home

The body of a 32-year-old woman who had died of a head injury was found in a car parked outside her Dana Point home Wednesday morning, authorities said.

Taylor Jan Martin’s body was found about 7 a.m. outside of the Mariana Drive fourplex, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

“An individual went to a resident and said there was a woman in a car who appeared to need help, and that’s when we got the call,” Olson said.

The car in which Martin was found did not belong to her, Olson said, but he declined to name the owner.

“Right now, this is classified as a suspicious death,” Olson said. “At this point, we don’t know how or where that occurred.”

An autopsy showed that Martin had died of a head injury.

A neighbor who lives across the street, Milt Hanson, said there was no car in the street when his wife left for work about 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.

But about 7 a.m., he said he awoke to a police siren and saw a white car, which looked like a Ford Mustang or Pinto, parked on the street perpendicular to the driveway.

The door on the driver’s side was left open, Hanson said, and the body appeared to be on the passenger’s side.

He said a couple were standing near the car and appeared to know the woman.

“The whole thing looked very strange to me,” Hanson said. “It looked to me like the girl was driven there, and whoever drove there, parked the car and just disappeared.”