CASTAIC : Truck With Remains Inside Belonged to Murder Suspect
The wreckage of a pickup truck found in a deep ravine near Castaic--and possibly the human remains inside the truck--belonged to the suspect in a 1993 San Fernando Valley murder, authorities said Monday.
About 18 months ago, Christ James Wetzel, 27, was fatally shot in the garage of a Northridge house by his friend, Mark Douglas Snyder, according to police. Witnesses said that after the shooting Snyder drove off in a green pickup. He was never seen again.
Los Angeles police detectives confirmed Monday that the truck spotted last weekend by forest rangers off the Templin Highway was the one Snyder fled in. Still unconfirmed are whether the skeletal remains in and around the truck are Snyder’s, and if so, how he died.
Police said they were working with Snyder’s sister to obtain dental records and a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said an anthropologist will examine the bones within the next week in an effort to positively identify them and determine the cause of death.
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