IRVINE : Truck Driver Finds Body Near Freeway

The body of a young man apparently killed by a gunshot to the head was discovered Monday morning along the San Diego Freeway, police said.

Homicide investigators said an unidentified truck driver who pulled to the side of the road to check a mechanical problem found the body about 20 feet from the dirt siding of the freeway’s southbound lanes, between Jamboree Road and Harvard Avenue, Police Lt. Vic Thies said.

Coroner’s officials said the victim appeared to have been killed between 10 p.m. Sunday and 2:30 a.m. Monday. He was found about 5 a.m. without any identification, and authorities were trying to learn his name by using dental and fingerprint records and papers found in his wallet, Thies said.

Police, who said the man appeared to have been killed where he was found, do not know who shot the man or why.

“When we have a victim without an (identification), it’s a real bad point to start from,” Thies said. “Right now it’s a real whodunit.”

The man, described as being in his mid- to late-20s and about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, was dressed in slacks, dress shoes and a shirt, and was wearing two necklaces and a watch, police said.

He was the second homicide victim in Irvine this year. A fatal shooting at a bus stop in June was the city’s first reported murder since 1989, according to police and state statistics.