Burning Body Found Along Railroad Tracks

A 911 call to report smoke on railroad tracks in Santa Ana led investigators to the grisly discovery Monday of a man’s burning body, police said.

“It’s hard to tell at this point whether it was a suicide or a homicide,” Sgt. Raul Luna, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department, said of the discovery, made about 5 p.m. between tracks in a railroad yard just south of Warner Avenue and west of Grand Avenue. “Obviously, we have to treat it as a homicide until we know.”

The condition of the body, along with the fact that the clothing had been burned off, Luna said, made it impossible to determine the person’s age or ethnicity. A wallet was found at the scene, he said, but it too was badly burned.

“Indications are that he died there,” Luna said, “but we don’t know whether there was any other trauma involved. He could have been stabbed, shot, [beaten] or anything.”

No weapon or note was found at the scene, investigators said. The body appeared to have been doused in a flammable liquid such as gasoline, but police had not determined how the blaze started.

Luna said the remains were taken to the Orange County coroner’s headquarters, where an autopsy was to be done early today that may also identify the man.