The victim's partially-clothed body was found face down in a wooded area near the Riverside Drive onramp to the southbound Glendale (2) Freeway at about 9 a.m. According to the LAPD, a Caltrans crew was working in the area when they discovered the body.
The victim's name and age have not been released.
"It looks right now as though this person was just tossed basically off the side of the freeway over there. It doesn't look like somebody tried to hide the body, other than moving it off the freeway. It doesn't look like someone tried to bury it or anything like that," said LAPD Commander Andrew Smith.
Detectives with LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Bureau were assisting in the investigation, just in case the victim turns out to be what the department calls a "critical missing person's case."
"They have the manpower and the expertise to handle big cases like that that sometimes get very convoluted and take a lot of detective resources to handle," Smith said.
The woman's body was dumped about 100 feet away from Allesandro Elementary School, where parents were understandably upset.
"Whoever did this could still be around our children's school. It's very scary to know that something like this happened around here," said Vanessa Rodriguez of Silver Lake.
School children looked on, as investigators gathered clues at the crime scene. The onramp was closed due to the investigation. The cause of death has not been determined.
