Man Charged in Unearthed Body Case

As forensics experts tried Thursday to identify a badly decomposed body discovered in a backyard in Stanton, the district attorney’s office filed murder charges against a 62-year-old man who had shared a mobile home there with his mother, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies believe the body is that of 86-year-old Katherine Poindexter, who was last seen in May.

Murder charges were filed Thursday against her son, Richard Poindexter, who lived with his mother in the 7800 block of Lampson Avenue, Sheriff’s Lt. Hector Rivera said.

Poindexter has not been charged specifically with murdering his mother, though, because the body has not been identified, officials said.

“Homicide investigators had reasonable cause to believe that a crime had been committed,” Rivera said. “We do know that there was a body found on the property. That’s why there was a murder charge.”

Though coroner’s investigators have not been able to identify the body positively or find a cause of death, he said, “We believe it’s Katherine Poindexter.”

The manager of the Rancho 39 Mobile Park called police Monday, saying that Katherine Poindexter had disappeared and that she was concerned about the elderly woman’s safety.

Homicide detectives obtained search warrants and on Tuesday searched the property that Poindexter had rented. After using bloodhounds to search the yard, sheriff’s deputies digging with shovels discovered the body early Wednesday.

Richard Poindexter already was in police custody. Early Thursday, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail on three traffic warrants: one for driving without a license and two for expired vehicle registration.