Mystery Persists After ‘Horrific’ Inglewood Crime

Mystery still hides the identity of a woman whose nude torso, arms and legs were discovered in two Inglewood alleys last July. Her head, hands and knees are still missing.

The body parts were dumped over a two-day period in alleys that are just a few blocks apart.

“It’s pretty horrific,” said Inglewood homicide Det. Stephen Seyler, the lead investigator in the case. In his 20 years at the department, he’s never seen anything like it, Seyler said.

On July 11, 2002, a woman coming home from work around 3 p.m. discovered the torso lying against a closed garage door in an alley between Imperial Highway and Hudspeth Street, near Spinning Avenue.

Her arms were cut off at the shoulder, her legs severed just above the knee, said Seyler.

Nearby residents say the wide alley is usually busy, with traffic from apartments on one side and houses on another. The torso apparently was not dumped before noon.

The northern side of the alley backs a quiet tree-lined residential street with carefully tended lawns. The alley is near two shopping centers, the Crenshaw Imperial Center and the Crenshaw Imperial Plaza, where Inglewood police maintain an office.

A day after the first discovery, a man looking for cans to recycle passed through a curving alley south of Imperial Highway around 7 a.m., said Seyler. The man found the woman’s arms and legs in a garbage can, in clear view atop the garbage. The hands were missing. Her legs had been severed just below the knee, Seyler said.

The man follows a regular route to collect recyclables and, after discovering the body parts, continued on his rounds. He flagged down police officers he spotted at a nearby McDonald’s around 8 a.m.

There was little blood found at either crime scene, and the body parts were not in an advanced state of decomposition, suggesting they had been dumped not long before being discovered, Seyler said.

The woman’s body was dismembered after she was killed, Seyler said.

The lack of a head and hands has stymied efforts to identify the woman, and police can only speculate as to why the knees were missing. Perhaps the knees carried identifying marks, Seyler said, or perhaps they simply didn’t fit inside whatever was use to transport the body parts.

Despite the gruesome nature of the killing, it was largely ignored. It occurred just a week after the nationwide broadcast of a videotape showing 16-year-old Donovan Jackson being beaten by Inglewood police officers.

All that is known about the killing, according to Seyler, comes from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office. Seyler said the coroner determined that the woman was black, at least 30 years old and about 5-foot-6, and weighed more than 200 pounds. She had had a hysterectomy.

Inglewood police have contacted law enforcement agencies across the county, state and country, reviewed missing persons reports and searched for other homicides or mutilation cases that might be related to this case. Seyler said investigators from the coroner’s office are also trying to determine the cause of death and what was used to dismember the body.

The Inglewood Police Department is asking anyone with information about the crime or the identity of the victim to call the front desk at (310) 412-5210 or the homicide section at (310) 412-5246.