Law enforcement officials have provided an update on the discovery of a body on a beach in Rancho Palos Verdes.
The discovery was made on Saturday afternoon around 1:00 p.m. off a hiking trail near Pelican Cove, according to preliminary information.
The exact location of the body is near Dina’s Viewpoint, located on Palos Verdes Drive South.
At a press conference Sunday morning, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Steve DeJong confirmed that deputies responded to the 31000 block of Palos Verdes Drive South when a female hiker, who was hiking Dina’s Viewpoint, encountered the body.
She subsequently called the sheriff’s department, who responded with the L.A. County Fire Department and confirmed that it was a human body upon making their way down the canyon searching the area. The person was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders, Lt. DeJong stated.
“While [the hiker] was admiring the surroundings, she looked down and noticed what she thought was a body down at the base of the cliff,” Lt. DeJong said. “The body was about 50 to 60 feet above the sea floor, and it appears based on our limited expertise with identifying decaying bodies, that it’s probably been there for a few months…it’s in a severe state of decay.”
“Today, L.A. County Homicide Unit detectives were on scene handling a death investigation in an attempt to determine the cause of death, [looking into] whether this was a slip and fall or if it was some sort of foul play,” he continued, but did not elaborate further.
Saturday’s discovery comes just days after two human legs were found on the Bluff Cove Trail near the 800 block of Paseo del Mar in Palos Verdes Estates, approximately four and a half miles from the body found near Dina’s Viewpoint.
This discovery was reported the day after the disappearance of a pair of boaters whose vessel was found less than two miles away from where they had launched at Cabrillo Beach; however, Lt. DeJong confirmed that the body discovered on Saturday afternoon was not connected to that investigation.
Officials could not establish a connection between the missing boaters and the discovery of the severed legs earlier this week, saying there was no “direct indication” that the remains belonged to the two boaters although “all possibilities are being considered.”
On Wednesday, the Coast Guard suspended their search for the two boaters, only identified as two men in their 50s, citing no signs of distress. Searchers had been using both air and sea methods in the attempt to find the boaters, but authorities found no evidence that the men could be alive.
