Body Found in Pipe Outside Santa Paula

The unidentified body of a young female was found New Year’s Day stuffed inside a concrete drainage pipe under a road in the rural South Mountain area near Santa Paula.

Authorities believe it represents Ventura County’s first homicide of the year.

A 15-year-old boy found the partially clothed body about 9:30 a.m. as he returned home from a walk, said Eric Nishimoto, spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. The body -- either a juvenile or a young woman -- was obscured from view but the boy saw it as he scrambled up a hillside, Nishimoto said.

Investigators had not determined the identity by late Wednesday. No missing person reports have been filed, Nishimoto said.

Sheriff’s detectives were canvassing the neighborhood of horse farms and orange groves to learn whether anyone had heard anything Tuesday night. Authorities believe the body was shoved into the culvert drain Tuesday night or early Wednesday.

The cause of death is expected to be released today after an autopsy, Nishimoto said.

The body was discovered off South Mountain Road, about one mile west of Balcolm Canyon Road.

Kevin Buckman, 35, who lives in a home directly above the road where the body was found, said he was in bed by 10 p.m. and did not hear anything.

His roommate, Dave Wallace, 46, said he was out celebrating the new year and did not notice anything amiss when he returned home at 2 a.m.

The only sounds heard, Wallace said, were from neighbors up the road having a party.

“A little bit of revelry up the hill,” Wallace said. “Nothing unusual.”

There were 23 homicides in Ventura County in 2002, the fewest since 1999 and eight below the previous year.