One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Discovery of Bree'Anna Guzman's Body Dumped Near Freeway Worries Lincoln Heights Community [UPDATED]
Photo courtesy of LAPD
The Lincoln Heights community where resident Bree'Anna Guzman was last seen a month ago has been on high-alert since she left to go to the drug store on December 26 and never returned. But that fear has only been heightened since her family identified her as the woman whose body was found near a freeway on-ramp in Silver Lake yesterday morning.Right now there isn't a lot of information about what might have happened in the month between when the 22-year-old woman was last seen and when she was found dumped and half-clothed near the 2 Freeway around 9 am yesterday.
The woman's cause of death isn't known yet, and so far neither the LAPD nor the coroner have officially identified the body as belonging to Guzman. It's not clear how long the woman had been dead before she was discovered, although the coroner told Eastern Group Publications that her body was already decomposing. The coroner’s assistant chief Ed Winter told EGP that he was waiting for a definitive match showing the body and Guzman share the same fingerprints.
The lack of information about what happened to Guzman and the way her body seems to have been casually dumped worries many Lincoln Heights residents (they've been expressing their worst fears on comment threads and Facebook). Some are especially fearful because last spring another young woman from Lincoln Heights was mysteriously dumped on the side of the freeway. Michelle Lozano, 17, was found dead and unclothed on the side of the 5 freeway near Boyle Heights last April. The coroner ruled that she died of asphyxiation.
LAPD officer Frank Carrillo told EGP that it’s too early to say if there’s any connection between the two cases, but the LAPD is not ruling anything out.*
In a Facebook group created when Guzman went missing, friends, family and community members posted their condolences and offered to help with a car wash planned tomorrow to raise money for the family.
*UPDATE: The LAPD confirmed that it is investigating any possible connections between the two cases.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
