NEWS ALERT

Burned Body Found inside Vehicle on Fire

• Authorities Are Treating Incident as Homicide

A preliminary autopsy by the Ventura County Coroner’s office revealed that a man was found burned to death on Monday morning inside a vehicle parked near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Sycamore Canyon Road, north of Malibu.

“We are still treating it as a homicide,” said a spokesperson for the coroner's office. “We are not releasing any more information until we identify the individual and notify next of kin.”

The California Highway Patrol discovered the body at about 4 a.m. when firefighters extinguished the flames of the burning vehicle, according to a CHP spokesperson. The CHP turned the matter over to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which is treating it as a homicide.

The car in which the body was found was engulfed in flames and lit up the early morning sky, according to authorities.