Los Angeles County Detectives Investigate More Human Remains Found in Palos Verdes

The rocky coastline of Palos Verdes, Calif., on Sept. 30, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Homicide detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department continue to investigate the remains of an adult discovered Dec. 28 on the cliffside in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Officials say the unknown adult may have fallen from the cliff at Dina’s Viewpoint in Pelican Cove Park, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

The grisly discovery was the fourth of its kind along the shore in the upscale Southern California enclave in the past week.

Detectives haven’t released any new information in the latest case since Sunday, department spokesman Deputy Jacob Sivley told The Epoch Times on Dec. 30.

Deputies responded to a call at about 1 p.m. Saturday after a hiker reported seeing a person about 40 to 50 feet down the cliff at the viewpoint on Palos Verdes Drive South, according to the department.

“Upon arrival, deputies located an unknown adult several hundred yards down the cliffside at the location,” the department said in a news release Sunday.

Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics and deputies “made their way down the canyon to the body, determined it was a human body, and pronounced it deceased on scene,” Lt. Steve DeJong of the sheriff’s homicide bureau told reporters at a news conference at the site Sunday.

The severe decomposition of the body suggests the person has been dead for an extended period, investigators said.

Dina’s Viewpoint is a popular hiking area along the Southern California coast touted for offering visitors ocean and sunset views. Detectives are trying to determine whether the person slipped off the cliff, or if foul play was involved, according to DeJong.

Investigators say they believe the death was not related to human remains that washed ashore recently in the same area.

In an earlier incident, two bodies washed ashore Thursday in the same area where two boaters had disappeared after their boat capsized on Dec. 24.

Weather officials in Southern California warned the public about dangerously high surf last week as waves in the Los Angeles County area reached 6 to 8 feet.

Adding to the recent mysteries, Palos Verdes Estates Police Department also reported finding human limbs along a sandy beach trail in the same area on Dec. 25 and Dec. 26, according to Capt. Aaron Belda.

A passerby walking along the Bluff Cove Trail happened upon the first leg and called police, Belda said.

The severed limb was found around 8:30 a.m. in the 800 block of Paseo Del Mar, a sandy trail that skirts the shoreline in roughly the same area where the boat capsized. 

A second leg was found Thursday, the department reported.

The county’s medical examiner collected the body parts and is trying to identify the remains, according to police.

“Officers responded with the coroner’s office, which confirmed the remains to be human,” Belda told The Epoch Times.

Anyone with information about the incidents was asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or L.A. Crimestoppers.