Woman’s Death Called a Homicide
Police said Friday they were investigating the death of a former Thousand Oaks woman as a homicide. The woman’s body was found Thursday morning in a clump of hedges and ivy in downtown Ventura.
The woman, whose name was withheld pending notification of next of kin, was 21 years old, white, between 5 feet 4 and 5 feet 8, with short brown hair, and weighing 120 to 140 pounds, a spokeswoman with the Ventura County medical examiner’s office said.
She wore black sweatpants, a gray shirt that read “B.U.M. Athletic Equipment,” and white socks. She also was wearing a silver-colored, fine-link bracelet and two necklaces--a cord string with a turquoise stone and a choker with small white beads, the spokeswoman said.
The woman had moved with family members from Thousand Oaks to Boston several months ago and had returned to Ventura County to visit friends, said Jim Wingate, chief deputy county coroner.
The cause of death was still under investigation, authorities said.
Officers Eric Jensen and Steve Arroyo found the decomposed body in an empty lot at Figueroa Street and Thompson Boulevard after they cited a transient, who was found sleeping in nearby bushes. Police did not say whether the transient was a suspect in the woman’s death. Det. Sgt. George Morris said the body had been there for three to 10 days.
“We got only one . . . partial fingerprint to make an ID,” he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Ventura Police Lt. Don Arth at 339-4406 or Sgt. George Morris at 339-4474.
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