An infant dead on the 405; a man slain; a fatal crash: Police connect 3 separate crime scenes
Homepage News
Caroline Petrow-Cohen April 8, 2024
The death of an infant on the 405 Freeway near Culver City may be connected to a Topanga-area slaying and a deadly crash in Redondo Beach, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Monday.
Officers were dispatched to the 6200 block of Variel Avenue in Woodland Hills around 7:35 a.m. Monday, where they found an unresponsive man in his 30s. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives later learned of two incidents that had occurred earlier in the morning and might have ties to their homicide investigation, LAPD said.
Around 4:30 a.m., officers were called to the northbound 405 Freeway near the Sepulveda Boulevard/Howard Hughes Parkway exit, according to the California Highway Patrol. An infant girl about 5 or 6 months old was found in the roadway, and a 9-year-old girl was found on the right shoulder.
The infant was pronounced dead at the scene, and the girl was taken to a hospital with minor to moderate injuries. A 911 caller reported seeing a black sedan near where the girls were found, according to City News Service.
At this time, Valley Bureau Homicide detectives are working with the California Highway Patrol on the incident involving the two children and believe it is connected to the Topanga homicide scene, LAPD said on X.
In a further twist,
t
he LAPD and CHP are collaborating with the Redondo Beach Police Department to determine whether the two violent scenes are connected to a fatal car crash in the beach city that involved a black sedan, L.A. police said.
The collision occurred around 5 a.m. Monday when a female driver crashed into a tree. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
CBS News reported that detectives identified a suspect in their investigation as the mother of the children found on the freeway and the wife of the man found in Topanga.
The LAPD did not confirm this information when reached by phone.
