Police Rousting Transients Find Woman’s Body in Hedges

VENTURA —  Police detectives are investigating the death of a woman found in a clump of ivy and hedges early Thursday morning, near where transients were sleeping on a vacant lot at Figueroa Street and Thompson Boulevard in downtown Ventura.

Two police officers citing a transient who was sleeping in the bushes found the body.

“They were giving me a ticket for sleeping and I noticed this smell,” Mario “Bear” Ramirez said.

“I don’t know who it was, I mean you can’t recognize it,” Ramirez said, standing next to a shopping cart filled with his bedroll and other belongings.

The two officers--Eric Jensen and Steve Arroyo--searched through the bushes and found the decomposing body of a woman.

“It appears she was there for some time,” said Sgt. George Morris, a Ventura Police Department homicide detective. “Someone reported smelling something a day ago.”

Because of the state of the body, investigators said it could be some time before the cause of death is determined, Morris said.

“If we can find some identification, we will still have to track down next of kin,” he said. “So it could be some time before we have answers.”

Coroners officials conducted an autopsy Thursday but said they have so far been unable to identify the woman or determine a cause of death. Further tests are being done.