Man’s Body Discovered in Backyard

The body of a man was found dumped in a backyard cesspool Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

The body was reported to police by a group of day laborers. They told authorities they found it after an unidentified person drove up in a truck and said there was a body in the yard of a nearby residence, said Det. Mike Coffey of the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood Division.

The victim, whose identity was not released pending notification of family, was also a day laborer, Coffey said. He is believed to have been 56 years old.

Regarding the man in the truck, Coffey said: “We don’t know who this person is. He just drove up to a group of people and said, ‘There’s a dead guy in the backyard.’ They don’t know this person. They had never seen him before but they went and looked and it was their friend.”

The body was found just after noon on Sunday in the backyard of a home in the 8000 block of Troost Avenue. The victim lived alone in the house with permission from the owner. Coffey said the man had probably been dead two or three days before his body was discovered.

“Tomorrow we’re going to get up and dig around that hole and look for anything,” he said.

The case is being investigated as a possible homicide, Coffey said.

The body shows evidence that the man suffered blunt-force trauma to his upper torso, but Coffey said more information will be provided by an autopsy.