Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Dead Man Found Wearing Women’s Clothes Identified

PALMDALE — A man found earlier this week floating in a Palmdale lake dressed in women’s clothing was identified as Mel Earle Pittenger, 56, of Littlerock.

Homicide detectives identified Pittenger, also known as Mel Harris, late Tuesday after receiving a tip from one of his friends about the location of the dead man’s truck.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives on Tuesday found Pittenger’s blue Jeep Comanche truck parked at the only sex bookstore in Palmdale. The Sierra Highway store, Sunshine Gifts, sells adult videos, toys and magazines and is about three miles from where Pittenger’s body was found.

Homicide Detective Cheryl Lyons said Pittenger was known to spend a lot of time at Sunshine Gifts.

“He hung out with people (with) alternative lifestyles,” she said.

Pittenger’s beaten body was discovered Monday morning in Una Lake, on the east side of Sierra Highway south of Avenue S. He was clothed in a black satin knee-length dress with spaghetti straps and a black belt with a large gold buckle, according to the Sheriff’s Department. He was also wearing light colored slip-on women’s shoes and a long-sleeve black pullover top.

Pittenger, twice divorced with a grown son who lives in Palmdale, was apparently beaten to death and no weapon has been found, Lyons said. No determination of the official cause of death will be made before today, according to the coroner’s office.

As of Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Department had no suspect or motive in Pittenger’s death. According to Lyons, witnesses reported seeing Pittenger at Sunshine Gifts about 2 a.m. Monday with a white male in his 30s.