Shallow graves yield 2 bodies in remote California desert. Police are searching for more victims

Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times on Sep 30, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — Along a desolate stretch of California desert highway, next to a ramshackle home, law enforcement officials dug for a second day on Wednesday in a search for bodies.

Detectives working a homicide investigation discovered the remains from two people on Tuesday in the remote area of Lancaster, authorities said.

They resumed digging at a sprawling and decaying property, shifting the focus from a battered greenhouse that was the center of attention Tuesday to an area nearer a home. KTLA’s Sky 5 helicopter captured medical examiner investigators and sheriff’s personnel working beneath a sheriff’s easy-up tent on the property strewn with old cars and detritus.

Sheriff’s homicide investigators have yet to say whether further remains have been found at the second location.

What began as a missing persons investigation turned into a homicide probe as investigators announced Tuesday they’d found two bodies at the Antelope Valley property near 50th Street East and East Avenue F. Sheriff’s cadaver dogs, deputies with shovels and a backhoe could be seen at work.

Sheriff’s Homicide Lt. Chris Oakley said it was considered a homicide investigation and the cause of the deaths would be determined by the medical examiner.

A source familiar with the investigation but not authorized to discuss it said detectives were pursuing several leads and that it was one of those leads that led them to get a search warrant to begin digging at the remote property.

Detectives also searched a second property in the 43000 block of Blooming Park Street in Lancaster on Tuesday as part of the same investigation.

Several plastic storage bins were visible in the driveway, and a man was briefly handcuffed and placed in a patrol car before being released. Neither he nor anyone else was arrested.