Body parts found near middle school

LAKE LOS ANGELES, Calif. (KABC) -- A severed hand has been found near the Wilsona Elementary School east of Palmdale. A homicide investigation is now underway.

The discovery was made on a dirt road at the intersection of 170th St. E and E Avenue M8 in Lake Los Angeles, in a remote part of northern Los Angeles County.

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The severed hand was found in the dirt on the side of the road. Authorities are now looking for a body in the desert just east of Lancaster. They are treating this case like a murder investigation.

Deputies say an unidentified resident made a 911 call alerting authorities to the hand at around 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening.

Sheriff's Deputies are searching the scene with cadaver dogs for evidence and a possible victim. They are also looking through missing persons reports to try and find a correlation.

Though the body part was found near the school, authorities so far don't think a murder happened on campus.

"The hand appears to have been brought to the area as a result of animal activity," said Martin Rodriguez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "And we're investigating the origin, and the possibility that the remainder of the body is located somewhere in the desert."

Deputies say the severed hand showed no signs of decomposition.

Wednesday afternoon, investigators say that several middle school students on their way home from school found more body parts in a brushy area, not far from where the hand was discovered.

Detectives are not saying if the body parts belong to the same person. They say that the coroner will have to determine that at some point.

"My boys were leaving the Wilsona Achievement Academy, and I got a call that I needed to come down because they found something that looked like body parts," says Janice Stowers, the school's principal.

"So, I called them over and sent them back to the school until the sheriffs arrived," she added.

If you have any information, please contact L.A. County Sheriff's Homicide Detectives at (323) 890-5500.

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