2 Held in Beating Death of Woman : Crime: Detectives follow a trail of blood from the victim’s body in an alley to a Carson back yard. They arrest a boy, 16, and his 21-year-old cousin.

A trail of blood led homicide investigators to two suspects Wednesday in the beating death of an unidentified woman whose battered body was found dumped in a Carson alley.

A resident discovered the body, nude from the waist up, about 6:30 a.m. lying in a pool of blood in an alley between Main Street and Kinard Avenue, county Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Doral Riggs said. Blood stains and drag marks led away from the body, along a sidewalk, through the front yard of a Kinard Avenue house and into the back yard, he said.

Detectives followed the path to the house, where they found shoes on the back porch that matched a foot imprint found on the woman’s body. Investigators questioned the occupants of the house, including a 16-year-old boy, who Riggs said confessed to beating the woman.

The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, also allegedly implicated his 21-year-old cousin in the attack. That man, Arthur Paul Viena, was arrested at his Carson home about a mile away.

Both were booked on suspicion of murder and are being held without bail, Riggs said.

The pair told detectives that they met the woman Tuesday evening at a fast-food restaurant. They claim she was panhandling and willingly accompanied them to the Kinard Avenue house, where they had sex with her.

At some point, the 16-year-old allegedly began beating her, Riggs said.

“There’s really no explanation for the attack,” Riggs said. “(Viena) said that he asked the (teen-ager) why he started beating her and he said, ‘This is just the way you have to handle them.’ ”

A preliminary autopsy report completed Thursday indicates the woman died of head, chest and stomach trauma. Riggs said the woman may have been able to survive the attack had she received quick medical care.

The woman’s identity remains unknown, in part because of the savage beating, Riggs said.

The victim is described as white, about 40 to 45 years old, about 5-feet, 7-inches tall, 135 to 140 pounds, with light brown hair streaked with small amounts of gray. She was wearing pink pants and light tan moccasin-style shoes. A torn pink T-shirt that she may have been wearing was found near the body.

Detectives said anyone who may know the woman’s identity should call the sheriff’s homicide bureau at 974-4341.