Coroner releases composite based on Angeles National Forest skull

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Coroner’s officials Tuesday released a composite sketch of a woman whose body was found in the Angeles National Forest after the Station Fire.

The skeletal remains were found on Dec. 26. near the Angeles Crest Highway, coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey said in a statement released Tuesday.

“Jane Doe 87″ was “determined to be a White or Hispanic female with an age range between 20-40 years old,” Harvey said. “The skeletal remains may have been at this location for an extended period of time, possibly several years prior to the “Station Fire” in August 2009.”

The composite drawing depicts a woman with a slight overbite and dark hair pulled back in a bun. The woman had several items of jewelry including a yellow metal band with five clear stones and six pink stones, a yellow metal band with five clear stones and six blue stones and a yelow metal band with five clear stones and six green stones.

Additionally she had a yellow metal necklace, Harvey said.

The woman’s skull was found just days after the skull of a man was located in the area near Lucas Creek, investigators said.

Detectives said the man’s skull appeared to have been pierced by a bullet.

Investigators said both sets of remains had been placed in shallow graves and had been undisturbed for some time before last year’s Station Fire, which destroyed more than 250 square miles of the Angeles National Forest.

Hikers discovered the man’s skull on Dec. 24. The woman’s skull was located after cadaver sniffing dogs were brought to the scene, officials said.

Arson or Accident? #Station Fire under investigation

From the Associated Press

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST — Firefighters made more progress Wednesday against a giant wildfire that has ravaged a national forest north of Los Angeles as investigators searched for more information about how the fire started.

Officials are still trying to figure out what set off the blaze in the Angeles National Forest that had burned nearly 219 square miles, or 140,150 acres, by early Wednesday. Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said Wednesday that the fire was human-caused, but it’s not known specifically how it was started or whether it was accidental or arson.

A spate of missing or dead women

Perhaps this sort of news comes in threes:

There was the woman’s body found in the Angeles National Forest.
There was the West Covina woman found shot to death in Pomona.
How long until Fox News or CNN pays attention? (Don’t hold your breath — none of these women were teen prom queens, models or lived on the East Coast)
We’ll keep on top of it here though ….

Drive-by in the forest

I forgot to post a link to this story Monday, and it’s pretty interesting. Apparently there was a drive-by shooting in the Angeles National Forest Sunday. One man was hurt. The shooter escaped. Here’s the brief that ran in the Pasadena Star-News:

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE – A man was shot and wounded in an apparently gang-related attack in the Angeles National Forest north of La Canada Flintridge Sunday, authorities said.

The shooting occurred about 4:30 a.m. on Angeles Crest Highway north of Foothill Boulevard, at mile marker 27.37, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Angela Shepherd said.
The victim, a 21-year-old Highland Park man, was standing at a turnout when a Silver sedan containing a Latino man and woman in their early 20s passed by, Shepherd said.
Several shots were fired from inside the car, striking the victim once in the lower back, she said. He was hospitalized with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.
No further details were available.