Huntington Beach Teen Found Dead at Business Park : Body: The 14-year-old boy is discovered by a sanitation worker in Santa Ana. Police say they do not know the cause of death, but are investigating it as suspicious pending an autopsy.

The rain-soaked body of a 14-year-old boy was discovered at a business park early Tuesday morning by a sanitation worker making a trash pickup.

Police said they have identified the boy, who is from Huntington Beach, but they did not release his name pending the notification of relatives.

The body was found near 3012 S. Croddy Way shortly before 8 a.m. in a metal enclosure that houses trash dumpsters, said police spokeswoman Maureen Haacker.

“We are investigating the death as a suspicious death pending an autopsy” this morning, Haacker said. “At this point, we just don’t know the cause of death or the circumstances that preceded the death.”

Detectives said it was not clear how long the body had been there, Haacker said.

The grisly discovery shocked workers at nearby Sunray Lighting Inc. who arrived at work Tuesday morning shortly after the body was discovered.

“You always read about bodies being found but it’s a little strange to actually see something like this,” said employee Mike Manzo. “Everyone usually comes out to wait for the lunch truck out here but today, it was a different story. There were police investigators everywhere.”

The teen-ager’s body was found lying in an unlocked metal enclosure among stacks of used tires, piles of old wooden boards and some dry leaves. There were also bloodstains on the ground.

Employees said they saw several plastic grocery bags tied tightly around the teen-ager’s head. They also said they saw a large amount of blood at the scene and that the teen-ager appeared to have been shot.

The employees said the teen-ager was big for his age, estimating he was about 6 feet tall. He was wearing a white tank top with blue pants and tennis shoes.

“It appeared to be an older person, at least about 30 years old,” said one employee, who declined to give his name. “If he was a teen-ager, he was a really big kid.”