Nov 5, 2008 1:45 pm US/Pacific
3rd Victim Identified In Long Beach Camp Slayings
LONG BEACH (CBS) ―
-
-
Katherine Verdun, 24, was the third victim to be identified Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Coroner.
CBS
-
-
5 bodies were found off the 405 Sante Fe freeway off ramp in the dense brush homeless encampment. The investigation is taking some time due to the heavy foilage.
-
-
Police set up a make-shift station to collect evidence and the 5 bodies found off the Sante Fe off-ramp.
A third victim was identified among the five people found slain in a Long Beach encampment nestled amongst freeway ramps Sunday. Police were responding to an anonymous call when they found five dead adults inside a makeshift camp occupied by the homeless.
Katherine Verdun, 24, was identified Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Coroner.
"There's two female adults and three male adults," said Assistant
Chief Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. "All of the
deceased appeared to have been shot, and we are conducting an investigation into their identity. We do have some bits and pieces of information we're trying to link together as far as their identity and to notify next of kin."
Forty-two-year-old Ilager McMoore says his niece, Vanessa Malaepule, was one of the victims. He says she was not homeless but liked to hang out at the encampment located along the 405 Freeway.He says police told him his niece was found under the body of her boyfriend, as though he had tried to shield her during the shooting. McMoore suspects the boyfriend may have been involved in a gang dispute.
The crime scene is in a brush-filled area between some commercial buildings and a freeway interchange on West Wardlow Road just east of Santa Fe Avenue, according to Long Beach police Sgt. Dina Zapalski.
Officers including Deputy Chief Robert Luna and officials from the Los Angeles County coroner's office were on scene gathering as much evidence as they could in this active crime scene.
Long Beach resident Tippi Briggs said while she was watching tv last night she heard some unusual noises, followed by gunshots, and then the sound of someone hopping in a car and leaving.
The speed of the investigation was somewhat hampered by the dense brush in the area, Zapalski said. The call was received at 8:30 a.m., and news media were first informed of the murders after 1 p.m.
The police are treating the deaths as a multiple homicide.
The area under investigation was adjacent to the interchange of the San Diego (405) and Long Beach (710) freeways. The collector road on the southbound 405 was closed at Santa Fe Avenue, as were ramps to and from surface streets in the area and the transition road from the southbound 405 to the northbound 710.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
