Body Found Dumped Off Side of Road

Los Angeles police were investigating the death of a man whose bludgeoned body was found Tuesday dumped off the side of a road in the hills above Studio City.

The unidentified body, believed to have been that of a man between 30 and 35 years old, was found about 2 p.m. in a brushy area below the road in the 7800 block of Mulholland Drive, Lt. Ron LaRue said.

The man was 6 feet tall with short brown hair and mustache, and wore a red, short-sleeved shirt with stripes, gray shorts and white tennis shoes, Detective Mike Coffey said.

The cause of death was unknown but the case was being handled as a homicide. Coffey said the victim appeared to have been hit several times in the upper torso, and possibly the head, with a blunt instrument.

“It appears that he was dragged to the edge and then pushed over the side,” LaRue said.

The body was 70 feet below the road on a steep hillside, wrapped in a blanket or sleeping bag. At least one person saw it as early as 7 a.m., Coffey said, “but they didn’t know it was a person.”

A woman who lives in the area “got a closer look around 1 p.m.” as she walked along the road, “thought it might be a body” and called police, he said.