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The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has released new details on the remains of one of two women who were discovered in vehicles at two local tow yards this week.
Both deaths are being investigated as homicides, according to law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the cases.
One woman’s remains were discovered about 12:20 p.m. Monday, when police responded to Hollywood Tow on Mansfield Avenue, according to Los Angeles Police Officer Charles Miller. Someone smelled a foul odor coming from the front trunk of a vehicle, and detectives were sent to investigate the possible presence of human remains.
The car, a Tesla with a Texas license plate, was towed from the tony Bird Streets neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills, according to police sources. The vehicle had been abandoned five days before, and the remains were contained in a bag, according to a law enforcement source who was not authorized to discuss the investigation.
“The decedent was found severely decomposed inside a vehicle,” read a statement from the medical examiner’s office. “She appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found. We are unable to determine her age or race/ethnicity. The decedent was wearing a tube top and black leggings (size small). She has wavy black hair. Jewelry includes yellow metal stud earring and w yellow metal chain bracelet.”
The medical examiner said the woman was 5’2” and 71 pounds and that she had a tattoo on her right index finger that said “Shhh…”
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Initially, the remains were described as a “head and torso.”
The owner of the vehicle has been identified as David Anthony Burke, a musician whose stage name is D4vd, according to a law enforcement source. The singer, who performed Tuesday in Minneapolis on his world tour, has been cooperating with investigators and is not believed to be involved with the woman’s death.
D4vd, pronounced “David,” first entered the public eye trough TikTok, where he has 3.6 million followers.
The body of the second woman was found Tuesday in South Los Angeles after family members filed a missing persons report. The family had reportedly tracked the woman to a scorched Honda Civic that was being held at a tow yard on West Gage Avenue.
The tow yard operator called the LAPD and said that family members wanted to look at the car, so investigators rushed to the scene and found the woman’s partially burned body in the trunk, according to police.
The car had been towed to the lot on Sunday from the 6800 block of South Flower Street, records show. The vehicle fire had been extinguished by L.A. City Fire, but firefighters never checked inside the car and did not see the woman’s remains, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. A fire department spokesman, Capt. Erik Scott, declined to discuss the department’s response, saying the matter was being investigated by the department’s arson unit and LAPD homicide detectives.
Authorities say they do not believe the Hollywood Hills case is related to the South Los Angeles case.
Times staff writers Summer Lin and Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.
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Richard Winton is an investigative crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2011. Known as @lacrimes on Twitter, during almost 30 years at The Times he also has been part of the breaking news staff that won Pulitzers in 1998, 2004 and 2016.
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