Headless body found in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park sparks homicide investigation

The discovery of a headless body in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park has sparked a homicide investigation.

A hiker and their dog stumbled across the head of the victim around 9 a.m. on Monday at an intersection inside the popular park, KABC reported. When authorities arrived on the scene, they found the rest of the body, partially dismembered, nearby.

The victim was identified as a male, either white or Hispanic in his 40s or 50s. His name has not been released.

Officers believe he’d been dead for two or three days by the time he was found.

Investigators on Tuesday were combing through two different locations for evidence — one where the head was discovered, the other where the body was found — but the rainy weather has hampered their progress.

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Los Angeles Police Department Ryan Rabbett told the news station law enforcement suspects the victim was a homeless man. Investigators have suggested he may have been killed by animals or that he died of natural causes and was later dismembered by wildlife.

“It may have been just an individual that was staying up at the park,” Rabbett said, adding that their was a sort of encampment near where the remains were found.

While opening a homicide investigation is only a matter of protocol in such circumstances, police said they are investigating all possibilities in the case.