Woman found in Burbank died near Tujunga, police say
After initially reporting the case as a suspicious death, police now say a woman in her 30s found dead in a Burbank driveway was the victim of a yet-to-be specified crime.
However, a man who would only identify himself as “local business owner” said he knew the family, and that he believed the woman had died of a drug overdose.
“I mean, I know,” the man said Friday. “It’s a small town.”
The woman, who has yet to be identified, was discovered by Burbank firefighters at 7:31 p.m. Friday in the passenger side of a black Kia in the 500 block of North Sparks Street.
Burbank police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said the woman died near Tujunga, in the city of Los Angeles, and that the case had been turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Los Angeles County Coroner’s officials came to the residence around 2:30 p.m. Saturday to take the body and collect evidence.
Det. Pat Barron, homicide coordinator with the LAPD, said the owner of the Kia, a man believed to be in his 40s, lived in the house with two other people. Barron declined to identify the man.
The man was driving with the woman near La Tuna Canyon, off the Foothill (210) Freeway on Friday when she died, Barron said the man told police.
He then drove his car back, with her body inside, to his Burbank residence. When the woman didn’t return home Friday, her boyfriend — who police also did not identify — came to the man’s house, said Barron.
When her boyfriend discovered she was deceased, he called Burbank authorities, Barron said. Baron said the driver has cooperated with police and led them to the area where he believed the incident occurred.
“He drove us out there and said, ‘this is where I believe what happened, happened,’” said Barron.
It took some time for the body to be removed because Burbank had to give it to their department and go through the process to obtain a search warrant for the home, he said.
No arrests have been made in the case.
Anyone with information is being asked to call the Los Angeles Police Department, Foothill Division Homicide Bureau at (818) 834-3115.
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Police term body in driveway ‘suspicious death’
-- Tiffany Kelly, Times Community News
Twitter: @LATiffanyKelly