MALIBU – A corpse inside a barrel was found on Monday in the beach Malibu, a posh region of California frequented by the rich and famous, police said.
Authorities said the body of a man stuffed into a 55-gallon (208-liter) barrel was discovered by workers on a sumptuous beach.
Homicide detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office are working on the case, the department said.
The man’s identity or cause of death have not been released.
ABC7 television said the barrel was seen floating in the water at Malibu Lagoon State Beach by sanitation workers late Sunday.
AFP photos showed the unopened barrel standing in shallow water on a sandbar just yards from the Malibu pier.
Framed by an idyllic coastline and less than an hour from Los Angeles, the area is home to a number of celebrities, including Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.
“Friends” actress Courteney Cox also has a luxurious mansion there, the same one where Prince Harry ate hallucinogenic mushrooms, she said in her biography.
Julia Roberts, Cindy Crawford, Leonardo DiCaprio and Paris Hilton have also bought properties in the past in this idyllic haven.
A similar case was registered last year in Nevada. When the waters of the Lake Mead reservoir receded and revealed a barrel with human remains, something that according to specialists could be the work of mobsters in Las Vegas decades ago.
FOUNTAIN: With information from AFP
