Map showing locations of bodies described in this article.

B i k e P a t h B o d i e sCompiled 2 August 2013Updated 21 August 2013

Updated 19 October 2013 (Item 10)

Bike Path BodiesBodies found nearby the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River Bike Paths

This is a compilation of reports of bodies discovered near the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River bike paths (the combination of which is called the “Emerald Necklace”) in Los Angeles County, California.

1 – Barbara Rogers, 9 September 2005

(Aprox. Loc. 34 00 51.71 -118 03 39.45 )

Ref: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-11028102.html

A decomposing body of a woman was discovered on the banks of the San Gabriel River. The body was found near San Gabriel River Parkway and Springland Drive.

Ref: http://www.lbreport.com/news/sep05/rogers2.htm

… a body found in Pico Rivera on Sept. 7 near the San Gabriel River has been identified as that of Barbara Rogers, 60, of Lakewood...and her death is being investigated as a homicide. [As far as I can tell, this crime is unsolved as of 2013.]

1b- John Doe, 19 January 2009

(Aprox. Loc. 34.029689, -118.073350)

Ref: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/the-body-of-a-m.html

The body of a man shot in the head and set on fire was discovered near the Rio Hondo River in Montebello, authorities said today. Police and firefighters responding to a fire about4:30 a.m. Sunday came across the body, which was lying in a dirt area just off Lincoln Avenue, said Lt. Michael Bergman of the Montebello Police Department. The man has not been identified yet, but he is believed to be between 20 and 30 years old.

1c- John Doe, 20 April 2009

(Aprox. Loc: 34.036269, -118.032663)

Ref: (KTLA News) http://origin-www.abc26.com/topic/ktla-body-found-in-san-gabriel-rive-270258,0,3248162.story

INDUSTRY-- A homicide investigation is being conducted after a man's body was discovered Sunday afternoon in the riverbed of the San Gabriel River. The body has yet to be identified, but is believed to be that of a 40 to 50 year-old man. The man's body was found Sunday at approximately 12:30 p.m. where the 60 (Pomona) freeway crosses above the San Gabriel River. Los Angeles County Sheriff's authorities say it appears the man

suffered blunt force trauma to the upper torso.

2 – John Doe, 10 June 2009

(Aprox. Loc. 34 02 03.05 -118 02 18.30)

Ref: http://losangeles.esteybomberger.com/blog/2009/06/10/man-found-dead-tuesday-on-bike-path-between-south-el-monte-and-pico-rivera/

Body was that of a 45 y/o male who fell or jumped from the Peck Road overpass and landed around 18 feet below the bridge on the bike path along the San Gabriel River.

3 – John Doe, 25 July 2011

(Aprox. Loc. 34 01 32.30, -118 04 46.42)

Ref: http://egpnews.com/2011/07/body-found-at-whittier-narrows-dam-still-a-john-doe/

The decomposed (dead several weeks) body of a male was found near some trees just off the bike path at the Whittier Narrows Dam in Montebello, close to the corner of San Gabriel Blvd and Lincoln Avenue.

4 – Marlene Estrada, 2011-11-26

(Aprox. Loc. 34 05 50.87, -118 01 17.45)

Ref: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/el-monte-body-identified.html

Marlene Estrada, 31, of La Puente was found dead in the Rio Hondo Wash near Santa Anita Avenue and Lower Azusa Road. She had been shot.

.

Photo: Police vehicle parked on bike path near where victim found. Dam is barely visible at

top of photo. The area in the middle of the wash in front of the police car is where I markedthe location on the map.

Ref: http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_19425593

Ref http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_20752367

4b – Jason Rivera, 2 November 2012

(Aprox. Loc. 34.014264, -118.092619)

Ref: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?id=8872531

Victim found on a river embankment. The shooting ... near Beverly Boulevard and Rea Drive.Investigators say the victim was shot and killed at the scene, along Rio Hondo near Grant Rea Park. There are no suspects or motives in the shooting.

Ref: http://egpnews.com/2012/11/man-shot-to-death-near-montebello-river/

… Police investigate the death of a man who was fatally shot and whose body was found near a Montebello river embankment on Friday night. ... Friday Nov. 2 ... a call reporting a “person down” on the Rio Hondo River embankment near Beverly Boulevard and Rae Drive near Great Rea Park.

5 – John Doe, 6 February 2013

(Aprox. Loc. 34 09 16.14, -117 55 11.61) (Not shown on map.)

Ref: http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime/2013/02/07/body-discovered-alongside-azusa-bike-path/

Badly decomposed of body an unidentified man found in thick shrubbery along the San Gabriel River bike path adjacent to the San Gabriel River and near the 1700 block of San Gabriel Canyon Road.

Ref: http://www.sgvtribune.com/crime/ci_22601382/coroner-says-body-found-by-san-gabriel-river

The man killed himself, according to the coroner.

6 – Jane Doe, 2 April 2013

(Aprox. Loc. 34 01 18.95, -118 03 16.91)

Ref: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_23767542/coroners-officials-seek-publics-help-identifying-body-found

A woman's partially skeletonized remains were discovered in the San Gabriel riverbed about 150 yards north of the Whittier Narrows Dam, and 100 yards west of Pico Rivera Bicentennial Park in an unincorporated county area near South El Monte. The body had been there some time and the coroner was unable to determine a cause of death. She had a tattoo of a rising sun with two mushrooms in front of it on her right calf. She was 21 to 40 years old. She was wearing blue jeans, size 16 petite, and gray size 10 tennis shoes. "A gray messenger bag containing two body sprays, along with a gray "Amtrak" hooded jacket were found near the decedent," according to the coroner's statement.

Ref: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/02/local/la-me-ln-human-remains-found-20130402 (includes map)

Ref: (sketch) http://static.topnewstoday.org:8080/i5/4/79/02/img_7102794_340.jpg

7 – John Doe (wounded), 28 April 2013

(Aprox. Loc. 34 01 47.45, -118 04 12.79)

Ref: http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime/2013/04/29/man-shot-along-rio-hondo-bike-path-in-south- el-monte/

A man was wounded in a shooting along the Rio Hondo Bike Path “near San Gabriel Boulevard and the Rio Hondo”. There is a bridge and a small picnic ground at that point, and that's the area where I mapped the incident.

8 – Felix Garcia-Bravo, 29 June 2013

(Aprox. Loc. 34 04 22.06. -118 02 45.93)

Ref: http://www.sgvtribune.com/crime/ci_23746166/man-found-dead-el-monte-wash-identified?source=rss

I was biking the day they recovered the body and had to detour around. The dead man was Felix Garcia-Bravo, 53. The body was found in the wash near the 3500 block of Santa Anita Avenue.

He was possibly beaten and stabbed to death.

9 – John Doe, 4 July 2013

(Aprox. Loc. 34 00 22.13 -118 04 08.24)

Source: cbsla.com

The body of a man was discovered in the San Gabriel River wash in Pico Rivera south of East Beverly Boulevard. The body may have been there days or weeks. Cause of death unknown.

10 – Unknown, 31 July 2013

(Aprox. Loc. 34 01 34.77 -118 04 37.09)

Ref: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_23769202/human-remains-found-montebello

The discovery was reported along the Rio Hondo riverbed adjacent to the 900 block of EastLincoln Avenue... [A] Montebello police Lt. ... said the remains, initially described as skeletal and "minimal" ... had been there "some time"... The bones had been scattered, apparently by animals …

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/20110726/body-found-near-whittier-narrows-in-montebello (posted 7/31/13)

MONTEBELLO - Police, sheriff's and coroner's officials are investigating after a body was found near the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, officials said. The body was spotted and reported to police just before 10 a.m. Monday in some brush near Lincoln Avenue and San Gabriel Boulevard, Montebello police Lt. Rich Meadows said. The body, initially described only as male, was "severely decomposed," Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Assistant Chief of Operations Ed Winter said. It was not immediately clear how old the dead person was, how he may have died or how long the body had been there, officials

said.

Ref: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-remains-found-near-bike-path-20130731,1855994,2389024.story

Authorities are investigating the discovery of human remains Wednesday morning near theRio Hondo bike path in Montebello ... [T]he remains, ... were strewn out near the trail ...

Ref: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/08/01/Coroner-to-examine-human-remains-found-near-bike-path/UPI-74191375374554/

Ref: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/01/5616074/human-remains-found-near-montebello.html

Ref: http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_23772405/human-remains-discovered-along-riverbed-montebello

...The area is adjacent to the 900 block of East Lincoln Avenue in Montebello. [A] Sheriff's Lt. said the remains have been there for sometime. "It's skeletal remains that have obviously been scattered by animals," he said. ... Police said the remains were found off the bike trail in an area thick with brush. Well-worn paths wind their way amid the dry brushand trees.

Ref: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/07/31/human-remains-discovered-on-bike-path-in-montebello

Human remains were discovered Wednesday afternoon on a bike path in Montebello. The scattered skeletal remains were found by a cyclist around 11 a.m. along the Rio Hondo Bike Trail near the 900 block of North Lincoln Avenue. …

Ref: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Human-Remains-Found-on-Bike-Path-in-Montebello-217829031.html

Homicide detectives were investigating the discovery of human remains on a bike path in Montebello Wednesday. The remains were found in the 900 block of North Lincoln Avenue,according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which was assisting the Montebello Police Department. [They weren't found on Lincoln.] The remains were found on a bike path in the area, according to [a] sheriff’s spokeswoman... The address is near the Rio Hondo Bike Path, a little more than 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Multiple police cars were parked at the scene, near Whittier Narrows Recreational Area, aerial video showed. – Homicide detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department responded to a bike path along Lincoln Avenue in Montebello Wednesday afternoon to investigate the discovery of human remains. Detectives confirmed the remainswere found by a cyclist, and have been there for some time

Update : “Police on Thursday sought the public's help to identify a man whose body was foundon a bike trail in Montebello in July. He's believed to be white or Hispanic, between 35 and 55 years old, with a partial denture at the back of his lower right jaw. No identifying papers were found with him, authorities said.” Ref: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Police­Seek­Help­ID­Man­Found­Dead­Montebello­226325771.html (3 October 2013) [Photo next]

PHOTOS

Reconstruction drawing of person found on bike path in Montebello July 2013.

Photo 1: Note phone pole, nearby white blotch on road, trees, and path with worn circular area leading from one tree to a subsidiary path. This is all clearly visible on Google Earth.

Photo 2

Another photo of the discovery site. Useful only to confirm that Photo 1 was in fact a photo of the discovery site.

Photo 3

In Photo 1 you can see a path leading from the bike path to a clump of trees between the police car and the white car. The areal view does not adequately portray that both sides of the bike path are a rather high embankment. If you walk over the embankment on this path,you can see what is clearly homeless campsite.

Photo 4

This is the view from the bike path. The encampment is not really in view, but the trail suggests it is in active use.

Photo 5

There seems to have been some doubt about how a body would have gone undiscerned on the ground in this area, and the idea that the area is mowed from time to time. The bike gives a sense of scale of the vegetation. It would be easy to hide anything in there. It is not mowed.

Photo 6

Climbing the embankment on the other side of the road, one can see yet another hollowed-out shrub used as a campsite.

Photo 7

This is a view of the Montebello hillside on the west side of the bike path. The phone pole gives one landmark. The bushes and trees comprising the first campsite described above are at the right of the photo.

Appendix

Websleuths Commentary

carbuff: It's kind of hard to see, but the Rio Hondo Bike Path is marked on the map as a greendotted line. The path runs along the streets there, and the photo clearly shows a separate path, so I suspect this isn't the exact location. If you look just north, across W. Avenida de la Merced, there's a narrow trail that looks more likely to me.

deca: So it sounds like the remains couldn't have been there for too long. carbuff: I can't imagine how, unless there are some isolated/hidden pockets along that trail, or they were buried and recently uncovered, or something. The way they're described as "scattered in the area" makes me think somebody moved them from somewhere else.

webrocket: scattered usually means that the remains were disturbed by animals scavenging the deceased's body. carbuff: I know usually it does, but we were commenting that it doesn't

look like an area where a body could lie undiscovered for long enough to become bones to bescattered. Very public crowded are. I know it has happened, though, so that might be it. deca: that looks like an area that would get periodically mowed down- that is why I don't think they would have been there too long.

reasypeasy: But going by what the terrain looks like, with bits of largish branches bleached out on the ground, I think the actual homeless-camping spot is a bit further down the bike track, in the more wild area. Far enough off the road to be hard for a police car to access, some dense scrub cover to hide them from concerned locals, and a watercourse for washing in. Perfect. And when I zoom into the spot where roadway, bikeway and waterway are closest,I even see a spot of blue that is the same color as many cheap tarpaulins.

Unfiled

http://www.dailynews.com/20110718/coroner-ids-man-pulled-from-rio-hondo-flood-control-basin-in-el-monte (posted 5/13/13): EL MONTE - The coroner today identified a man who waspronounced dead after he was pulled from the Rio Hondo Flood Control Basin in El Monte. The victim Aldo Paya, 38, said coroner's investigator Kimberley Arnold. Where he lived was not immediately determined. A distress call was made at 2:43 p.m. Sunday from where Santa Anita Avenue crosses the body of water, a Los Angeles County fire dispatcher said. A man in 30s was then pulled alive from the water, and Paya was found later, just before 4 p.m., the dispatcher said. Arnold said an autopsy would be conducted on Paya's body in the next two days.

LAT

April 20, 2009 | David Zahniser

A man was found dead Sunday in the bed of the San Gabriel River near the 60 Freeway, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department asked the public for information about the death. The man, who was not identified, suffered blunt force trauma to his upper body, authorities said.