Trash-Can Bodies Puzzle Police

by Long Beach (AP)

Law enforcement agencies are comparing notes to see if there is any connection among the deaths of several boys and young men found dumped in trash bins. The latest body was found Wednesday dismembered and stuffed into three separate trash bags in a gas station dumpster. Only two days before another young man’s body was found in a dumpster in nearby Agoura. The dismembered body was not immediately identified, and an autopsy was scheduled for today. Investigators said the dead youth was a white male in his late teens or early 20s.

The body found Monday was identified as Donald Ray Hyden, 15 of Hollywood. He had been stabbed to death and possibly sexually molested before being placed in the dumpster on Liberty Canyon Road just north of the Ventura Freeway said Sheriff’s Lt Stanley Beckman. Sheriff’s officers said they would be checking with Long Beach police to see whether the two murders might be related the Hyden murder is already being considered as part of a series that includes two other killings over the past few months Beckman said. Both other murders involved young men who were stabbed to death and left nude in the Agoura-Malibu area.

On May 28, the nude body of 13-year-old Thomas Glen Lundgren of Reseda was found near Mulholland Highway. He had been stabbed several times and was sexually mutilated investigators said. On August 6, Marcus Grabs, 17 of West Germany was discovered stabbed to death in the Tapia Park area north of Malibu. Tests to determine whether he had been sexually assaulted proved inconclusive.