Third Body Is Found in Remote Area in Irvine : Crime: Police are reluctant to establish a link between the discovery of the corpse and two other victims who were left nearby in March.

A man’s body was found in an orange grove across the street from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Thursday, the third found in the area in six months. But investigators say it is too soon to tell if the death is linked with two slayings six months ago.

The corpse of the male Latino in his mid-20s appeared to have been dumped several hours before an Irvine Co. worker found him at 8:25 a.m., Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said.

The man, who was not identified Friday, may have died from trauma to the head, he said.

The two bodies found one week apart in late March had suffered trauma to the head, but officials do not believe that those deaths were related. No one has been arrested in connection with those killings, and the investigations are continuing, Olson said.

Sheriff’s investigators called the three findings coincidental and were unwilling to label the area a dumping ground for homicide victims.

“We’re not finding any connection to any of these (bodies),” Sheriff’s Lt. Bob Rivas said. “The investigations are separate,” he said.

But Rivas conceded that “You get into an area that’s not heavily traveled at night and it makes it more conducive to dumping bodies.”

Olson said it is rare that three bodies are found in the same general area in the same year but declined to speculate on a pattern.

The grove is east of Trabuco Road between Jeffrey Road and Sand Canyon Avenue.

“It’s a remote area, and that’s the way it happens,” Olson said. “It’s too early to determine anything at this point.”

On March 26, farm employees inspecting the grove about 3:45 p.m. found the body of a woman who had been killed by a blow that cracked her skull. The partially decomposed body, found about a week after the slaying, still has not been identified, sheriff’s officials said.

The body is that of a white female, 18 to 24 years of age, 5 feet, 5 inches tall, and weighing 110 pounds. At the time of her death, the woman wore a white, short-sleeved T-shirt, blue floral-print baggy pants with a drawstring and a pair of navy blue shorts.

Five days later, a different worker checking on water hoses shortly before 9 a.m. found the body of Jose Antonio Valenzuela about half a mile from the spot in the same orange grove where the woman’s body was found. The employee, Rojelio Cuevas, said at the time that Valenzuela’s face and neck had been slashed. An autopsy report later showed that the man had died from a blow to the head and neck.

Valenzuela’s aunt and uncle identified the body for authorities April 7 after reading a description of it in a Spanish-language newspaper, Rivas said.

The 30-year-old day laborer was last seen in San Juan Capistrano March 30, his relatives told investigators. Officials estimated that he died several hours before being found but were not certain if he was killed in the field or if he was dumped there.

The man found Thursday was lying face down along a dirt road in the grove, Olson said. An autopsy report is scheduled to be conducted today. The unidentified man was wearing a light blue, long-sleeved shirt, light blue jeans and black boots, officials said.

Anyone with information on any of the three victims is asked to call (714) 647-7055.