Identity Sought of Body Found in Orchard

Coroner’s officials are attempting to identify a badly decomposed body of a man found this week by workers trying to clean out a barranca that runs through an orchard north of Ventura.

The body was spotted Wednesday afternoon by a crew on the Willett citrus ranch on North Ventura Avenue near School Canyon Road. Investigators spent most of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning scouring the area for clues, said Capt. Larry Robertson, who heads up the major crimes division for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. “Until we can say otherwise, we will be treating this as a homicide,” he added.

As of late Thursday, coroner’s officials were continuing their autopsy on the body and said it could be several days before a cause of death is determined.

Because the area is near Vista Del Mar Hospital, a recovery center for people suffering from depression or with substance abuse problems, Robertson said hospital officials were asked if anyone was missing from the facility.

Because clothing was found with the partial skeletal remains, Robertson said identification would be much easier.

The orchard work crew came across the body while cleaning out weeds and brush from the barranca, which is at the far southeast end of the property, which abuts a small, 8-year-old housing tract.

Neighbors in the quiet, well-kept neighborhood of single-family homes said they were concerned about a body being found within a few dozen yards of their homes.

“I’d like to know if it’s something we should be concerned about,” Norm McDaniel said. “I mean it was just in the canyon north of us that they found Sherri Dally.”

Dally’s decomposed body was found in June, a month after she was kidnapped from a department store parking lot. She had been bludgeoned to death. Her husband, Michael, and his girlfriend, Diana Haun, are awaiting trial in her death.