Skid marks on a wilderness roadway led authorities to a more gruesome find: the skeletal remains of a person who may have been missing for years.

A crew from the California Department of Transportation working along Angeles Crest Highway near Mt. Wilson spotted the skid marks Tuesday and alerted police, according to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived to investigate and found an SUV about 500 feet down the side of the highway, which snakes through the rugged Angeles National Forest.

A search-and-rescue team rappelled down to the vehicle and saw that it appeared to have been abandoned.


Deputies checked the vehicle’s identification information, which showed the car was involved with a missing person case from 2014, sheriff’s officials said. The Los Angeles Police Department had been investigating the disappearance.

After returning to the scene Wednesday morning, deputies found the human remains near the SUV. Coroner’s officials helped to recover the remains and examine the area.

Sheriff’s officials said the identity of the person was unknown, but the body would undergo an autopsy to determine how the person died.

Officials did not release details about the 2014 missing-person case.


As for the skid marks, investigators later concluded that they originated from a more recent collision.

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

Twitter: @MattHjourno.

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