Missing hospital patient found dead

Los Angeles County health officials are investigating how a patient left Harbor-UCLA Medical Center while being treated and later died.

The man, identified by county coroner officials as 56-year-old William Harold Jones Jr., was taken to the hospital by paramedics about 1 a.m. Saturday after complaining of “general body pain,” according to an internal e-mail to county Department of Health Services officials.

Shortly before 7 a.m., Jones was seen by a doctor, who gave him pain medication.

After he was “referred to X-ray at 7:50 AM,” Jones went missing. Multiple attempts to locate him were unsuccessful, according to the e-mail.

Several hours later, about 12:45 p.m., Jones was found dead in a parking lot across the street. The cause of death is under investigation, said Jerry McKibben, an investigator with the coroner’s office.

-- Joel Rubin