Decomposing body found in pillar outside grocery store linked to fugitive in California

Josh Hafner | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Rotting body found inside grocery store pillar The gruesome discovery came after a store manager noticed a strange odor stemming from a pillar outside a WinCo Foods in Lancaster, California.

The discovery came after a store manager noticed the strange odor stemming from a pillar outside the entrance of a California supermarket. Thinking a sewage leak had occurred, the manager called a plumber, who chipped away at the pillar's brick to reveal a person's leg inside.

That's according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which said the decomposing body found Saturday inside the column at a WinCo Foods in Lancaster may have belonged to a suspect who fled from police days earlier last week.

"It's been over 100 degrees up here every day," Lt. John Corina told told KABC-TV. "I cant imagine being inside that column and just baking ... it's a horrible way to die."

The grisly scene left even veteran detectives in shock, the station reported.

Firefighters later cleared away more of the column to further reveal the body, according to KTLA-TV, which described customers stepping past a crime scene cleanup truck as they entered to store on Sunday. The body, once uncovered, suggested a man standing with an arm trapped behind his head, KCAL9 reported.

But authorities said a man who fled police days earlier, on Monday, may have been trapped inside for days.

A driver reportedly crashed the car before fleeing from authorities to the Winco store's roof, a sight that witness Henry Oliver told KABC-TV: "He got out of the car, ran in, ran up the steps... and somehow got on the roof, and last I heard he got away."

But the roof features an access point leading inside the column, and the suspect may have hidden there, or fallen in, before becoming trapped.

"He may have gotten inside there and gotten down to try and hide from the deputies and then couldn't get out," Corina said, according to NBC Los Angeles.

KCAL9 reporter Jeff Nguyen published an image of the column on Twitter.