US: Police Find Six Bodies in Grisly State at Remote Mojave Desert in Southern California

Police found the bodies of six people at a remote dirt crossroads in the Mojave Desert, located in the US state of California. The murder scene was described as so grisly that local TV stations blurred some of the images captured by their helicopters overhead.

“On Tuesday, January 23, 2024, at approximately 8:16 p.m., deputies responded to Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road, a remote desert area in El Mirage, for a well check. Upon arrival, deputies located multiple deceased individuals,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Police responding to a request for a wellness check reached the area off Highway 395 outside the community of El Mirage around 8:15 pm. Tuesday and found five of the bodies. The sixth was found Wednesday morning, sheriff’s spokesperson Mara Rodriguez said.

Still gathering evidence

US authorities were still gathering evidence to determine what happened, and Rodriguez said they could not say even how the people died or whether they had been shot, The Associated Press reported. The area, about 80 kilometers northeast of Los Angeles and about 32 kilometers northwest of Victorville, is so remote that the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department called in help from the California Highway Patrol’s Aviation Division to find the scene, Rodriguez said.

“It’ll be several hours still before we are ready for any body to be removed from the scene,” she said, adding that the coroner’s investigators will be called in then. TV crews arriving Tuesday night reported seeing two vehicles at the crime scene. Overhead footage from TV stations showed a dark blue SUV with a passenger window blown out and another door open, with part of the image blurred.

The footage showed numerous yellow evidence markers near the dirt crossroads, in scrubby desert land that stretched for miles. Yellow tape blocked access from the nearest paved road. Members of the department’s specialized investigations division were brought in to conduct a homicide investigation, according to an email from sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Huerta.

(With agency inputs)