2 Bodies Are Found in Car in Burbank

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives Friday were investigating the discovery of two decomposing bodies in a car parked on a quiet residential street.

The two dead men were found in the abandoned, blue Honda Accord after neighbors noticed a foul smell coming from the car and saw something that looked like blood dripping from the trunk.

One body was “squished into the trunk. . . . His legs were squashed under him and his shirt was pulled over his head,” said Daniel Berg, a resident of the 200 block of West Linden Avenue. The other man’s body was in the car’s back seat, he said.

Coroner’s investigators said Friday they had identified the men, but had not yet notified relatives or determined how they died. Police said they are considering the deaths homicides.

“They didn’t just climb into the trunk and die,” said Burbank Sgt. Jay Jette. “It looks like they were killed somewhere else and just dumped here.”

Residents of West Linden Avenue--a dead-end street in a working-class neighborhood of single-family homes and small apartment buildings--said the abandoned car may have been parked on the street since Tuesday night.

“Nobody really noticed it at first, but then it began to smell really bad,” said Berg. “But it’s hard to believe that somebody would dump bodies here . . . It’s such a great little neighborhood.”

Berg said no one was suspicious until Thursday evening. Then, “one neighbor was outside talking to another neighbor when one of their dogs went over to the car, sniffed it, then backed away,” he said.

“So the neighbor went over to the car and he could smell something . . . and he saw something dripping from the trunk. At first, he thought it was transmission fluid. Then he noticed all the flies buzzing around. So somebody called 911. When I looked at it later, I could tell it was blood.”

Burbank patrol officers pried open the trunk and discovered the first body, then called Los Angeles County coroner’s officials, who discovered the second body. The car was towed to the coroner’s office in Boyle Heights, and the bodies removed.

Coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier said the bodies were too decomposed for officials to immediately determine a cause of death, and autopsies would not be completed until this weekend.

Although the bodies were found in Burbank, local police requested that the homicide investigation be handled by the Sheriff’s Department.