Mangled body of woman turns up in L.A. sewage plants

William M. Welch | USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES – Authorities say they believe body parts that turned up in two county sewage plants are from the same woman, and they are investigating the death as a homicide.

Workers found the head and upper body of a woman Monday at a sewage plant run by the county in an unincorporated part of the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. The lower parts of a woman's body, including a foot, both legs and pelvis, were found at another county-run wastewater plant in Carson on Saturday.

County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Rosson said investigators believe the woman's body may have slipped into the county's sewage system, perhaps through a manhole, and been mangled by pumps that send wastewater to processing plants. The plants are connected by miles of sewer pipes.

He said that the woman's head and upper torso were found by workers checking a plugged line, KNBC-TV reported. One arm remains missing.

"Anything that comes into this water plant must move through a 17-inch line before going through a centrifugal pump," Rosson said. "So you can imagine what kind of damage to a person's body would happen."

The county coroner's office is trying to identify the dead woman and determine a cause of death. Rosson said it was being investigated as a homicide.

"People don't just fall into a manhole cover," he said.

Contributing: Associated Press