LOCAL : Body of Woman Who Died in Car on Busy Van Nuys Street Found

Three or four days went by before a passerby noticed the body of a woman that was found this morning in the back seat of a car alongside a busy Van Nuys street, Los Angeles police said.

The 51-year-old woman who lived in a home nearby is believed to have died of natural causes, Detective James Vojtecky said. Her name was not released pending notification of her family. She was found in the 6600 block of Hazeltine Avenue about 1 a.m., Vojtecky said.

The car was parked in front of a vacant lot, but there were apartment buildings nearby, police said. The street was well-lighted, and when an unidentified man walked past the car, he saw that the woman was “obviously” dead, Vojtecky said.

The passerby called the Fire Department and paramedics, who initially examined the body and notified the Police Department that the woman could have been shot in the head. But detectives later determined that decomposition of the body led to the erroneous conclusion.

Police estimated that the woman died sometime over the weekend. An autopsy will determine the cause of death. Vojtecky noted that many apartment residents traverse the busy neighborhood and that passersby did not notice the woman in the car had not moved.