Body of Pregnant Woman Identified as Former Marine

The body of a pregnant woman found earlier this month in a burning car at Los Angeles International Airport was identified Tuesday as a Huntington Beach resident and a former Marine stationed at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, authorities said.

Dental records were used to identify the body of Stacey Janelle Horst, 29, who was discovered April 15 in a still-blazing car at an airport parking structure, according to police and coroner’s investigators.

Horst was discovered about 7:45 p.m. in a burning car later determined to be registered in her name, detectives said. Also in the car was a nearly full-term female fetus, police said.

The crime is being investigated as a homicide. Los Angeles County coroner’s investigators are still performing tests to determine the exact cause of death.

Investigators had no motive or suspects in the case, said Los Angeles Police Det. Peter Waack.

Horst, who arrived in Southern California in 1988, lived most recently in Huntington Beach and was unemployed at the time of her death, officials said. In 1990, she lived for nine months in a modest Hawthorne apartment complex where neighbors do not remember her.

At El Toro, Horst served most recently as a lance corporal working in the supply section of Aviation Logistics Squadron 11, said 1st Lt. Douglas Powell, a station spokesman. Horst ordered and distributed parts for jet aircraft, such as the station’s F-18 contingent, Powell said.