Decomposed Body Found Near Freeway

SAN CLEMENTE — A decomposed body was found underneath a bush by a resident walking near Interstate 5, San Clemente police said Wednesday.

The identity of the body remains unknown but investigators believe the corpse may have been there for more than three weeks, said Sgt. Richard Downing of the San Clemente police.

A San Clemente resident, whom police would not name, was walking home about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday on the eastbound easement of Interstate 5, just north of Avenida Pico, when he spotted the remains of a body lying underneath a bush about 80 feet away from the freeway.

Investigators were unable to find any identification or to determine the corpse’s sex or cause of death, even after an autopsy Wednesday evening. The body was clad only in a pair of pants.

Deputy examiner William King said that because of the physical state of the body, he suspects it had been there for three or four weeks.

“We are calling in a forensic anthropologist because there was so much decomposition,” King said. “We can’t even tell if it was a male or female at this point.”