Human remains discovered blocking pipe under 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa
Authorities are investigating the discovery of human remains in a pipe underneath the 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa.
California Department of Transportation workers were made aware of the blocked pipe near Baker Street sometime Monday. Using a robotic camera, crews inspecting the culvert reported seeing a skeleton.
Crews began clearing the obstruction at around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, hoping to flush the blockage. Until it was cleared it could not be confirmed whether the blockage was actually human remains.
The work through most of Wednesday, as workers continued to dig up the underground pipeline.
Both California Highway Patrol and Orange County Sheriff's Department authorities were assisting with the incident. Coroner's officials were also asked to be on hand at the time that the pipe is flushed, according to OCSD Sergeant Scott Steinle.
The CHP said that it appears that a decomposing body is stuck in the pipe and that a size 10 1/2 shoe was located close by.
As they worked to flush the blockage, a buildup of debris prevented them from extracting the remains. Instead, they resorted to vacuuming the debris from the pipe.
Both flushing and vacuuming the pipe proved more difficult than expected and eventually an OCSD Search and Rescue team was called to the location to assist in removal.
"The place that they're accessing it from is the access port," said CHP Officer Anselmo. "I wanna say it's about 90 feet from where that port is."
At around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, workers finally were finally removed what was confirmed to be skeletal remains from the pipe. There were no signs of obvious trauma on the bones.
The pipe, 26 inches wide, is big enough for a person to crawl into, but officials noted that as the pipe continues it gets noticeably narrower.
"I would be really curious to know because it's not something that the average person would have access to right. Someone would have had to intentionally put a body in there or somebody would have to be missing and if somebody intentionally put the body in there it would have to be someone with knowledge of how the drainage system works," Newport Beach resident Mark Thompson told CBSLA Reporter Michele Gile.
According to Templado, they do not believe there to be any signs of foul play.
