Dead body found inside stolen U-Haul van in Rio Linda; homicide investigation underway
RIO LINDA — A homicide investigation is underway after a body was found inside a moving van in Rio Linda, authorities said.
The discovery was made along I Street inside a U-Haul van that was reported stolen, a spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said.
"This is an uncommon thing in the neighborhood of Rio Linda," said Sergeant Amar Gandhi.
Gandhi said it is a rural area that usually gets few calls for service.
"They weren't able to confirm if there was anything suspicious or not," said Gandhi.
The California Highway Patrol first got a call to remove the parked van from the dead end. When officers arrived, they ran the license plates and realized it was stolen and then found the body.
"They found what appeared to be a corpse inside in the back of that van," said Gandhi.
Gandhi told CBS13 that the U-Haul was reported stolen on August 17 out of south Sacramento. He could not tell us how long the truck with the dead body was sitting at the dead end.
"We want to make sure all the evidence is preserved and we aren't contaminating anything," Gandhi said.
Homicide detectives took their time gathering evidence until the crime scene investigators showed up.
Neighbors told CBS13 this is out of the ordinary for the street, which has a lot of families.
On Monday, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said they were now investigating the incident as a homicide. The identity of the deceased has not yet been released.