Waltonia Drive is the scene of apparent suicide plunge

An apparent suicide closed off Waltonia Drive in Montrose, below the westbound Ocean View exit of the Foothill (210) Freeway, for a few hours Friday. Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies were called to the scene at 8:04 p.m. to investigate.

“The fire department was here for awhile, then they left and the sheriff [deputies] stayed,” said a nearby resident, one of several who milled around on the sidewalk trying to learn what had happened in their neighborhood.

According to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s homicide detective Ty Labbe, a 53-year-old Montrose woman apparently jumped from the freeway bridge. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body was later transported to the county coroner’s office by van. The investigation into the death remains open, pending the coroner’s report.

This area is the same location where two teenagers lost their lives almost a year ago when their SUV plunged off the side of the Ocean View offramp onto Waltonia. A few weeks later, another car took the same exit at a high rate of speed and also went off the freeway, but in that instance the driver survived.