The crime scene was initially hard to see from the ground and the air. However, when the burned car was actually towed Thursday afternoon, the extent of the fire and its heat was clearly visible.
"The car actually melted. The rear end of the vehicle melted. And then the body just kind of unfolded from the rear of the vehicle," said Detective Kevin Lowe, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Firefighters were called to a Rancho Dominguez industrial park in the 19000 block of Laurel Park Road at about 4:20 a.m. They discovered the victim inside a silver Mercedes. The car was parked in front of an Advanced Fresh Concepts Corporation, a sushi company.
Employees at a nearby office building say they do not have a surveillance camera.
Detectives say they know who owns the car, but it isn't the man in the trunk.
Workers from the Coroner's office removed the body and now have the task of figuring the identity of the victim.
"First of all, we need to find, get an identification of the victim. That's going to be the most crucial thing. And then we can try and track backwards and find relatives, family, friends, where the last place he was, his contacts were, why was he here in this area. So, we're going to have to try and find ... The most important thing is to get an identity," said Det. Lowe.
Authorities say they took a preliminary look at the body at the scene and found no wallet, no identification. So, they will be relying on the Coroner to help identify this man and to figure out how he died.
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