Police Continue Investigation of 2 Bodies Found in Parked Van

Police on Friday continued to investigate a double homicide in the Mar Vista section of West Los Angeles, where the bodies of an unidentified man and woman were found Thursday, wrapped in plastic garbage bags inside a parked minivan.

Coroners’ investigators determined that the victims died of gunshots to the head. One body was found on the back seat and the other was under blankets and a baby carriage on the floor in the rear of the van. Neighbors detected a putrid odor wafting from the van, which had been parked for about four days in the 1700 block of Glyndon Avenue.

Identities of the victims, whose bodies were greatly decomposed, have not been determined. The red 1985 Plymouth Voyager was registered to a Hawthorne man whose wife reported him missing after he failed to return from work seven days ago, according to police.

The van is registered to Robert Joe Gonzales and his wife, Blanca Estella Diaz, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Discovery of the bodies rattled residents, who watched somberly as investigators sliced open the garbage bags Thursday and loaded the bodies into the coroner’s van, said Sam Call, who called police after noticing the smell.