Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials are investigating the discovery of two bodies in the Dominguez Channel. The first, a young girl, was found Tuesday by a golfer at the Victoria Golf Course in Carson. The second, an adult male, was found a day later by refinery staff working near the waterway.
Deputies described the girl as severely decomposed and estimated her age to be between 6 and 12 years old. She was between 4-foot-4 and 4-foot-8, weighing 60 to 85 pounds, with brown eyes and short dark brown or black hair. An autopsy is scheduled to determine her cause of death.
The man was described as a Black male between 50 and 60 years old. Officials estimated he had been deceased for less than 24 hours and noted no obvious signs of trauma. His cause of death will also be determined by an autopsy.
Officials stated that the only similarity between the two cases is that both bodies were found in the Dominguez Channel, which spans approximately 15.7 miles in southern Los Angeles County. The two bodies were recovered miles apart.
Local resident John Hollaway told ABC 7 that he saw yellow police tape near the Del Amo Boulevard Bridge while exercising and later learned a child's body had been found. "I just didn’t want that memory etched in my head, especially now knowing it was a child now," Hollaway said.