Woman’s Body Found Along Rural Highway

The body of an elderly woman dressed only in her underwear was found Thursday morning off a rural highway, authorities said.

The victim had not been identified late Thursday. She was described only as white and in her 60s or 70s.

“We suspect it’s a murder,” said Det. Mike Crowley of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide division.

The exact cause and time of death will be determined by the county coroner’s office.

Authorities were called to the site about 7:40 a.m. by a motorist who saw the body while traveling on Mulholland Highway in an unincorporated part of the county near Calabasas. The body was near some brush in a corner of a dirt turnout.

Crowley said the body could have been dumped there that morning or during the night.

No clothing or other property belonging to the woman was found at the scene, Crowley said, which could make it more difficult for investigators to identify her.

Thursday, no missing persons had been reported in Calabasas or in the sparsely populated area--about three miles east of the Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road intersection--where the body was found, Crowley said.

The site is about five miles from the Calabasas strip mall where a 12-year-old boy’s body was found beaten to death in a dumpster last month. Two teenagers who lived with the boy in a group home have been charged with that crime.