Two days after investigators left the scene, the remote location where the bodies of six people were found in San Bernardino County on Tuesday still reveals grisly relics from their demise, juxtaposed against a spectacular desert vista.
Charred vehicle glass, near where burned bodies were spotted by television helicopter cameras, sat in the dirt on El Mirage off-road trail 4652 on Friday, Jan. 26. Just feet away, splotches of blood soaked into the ground. And hundreds of feet of yellow crime scene tape lay atop the sagebrush and unpaved road.
Miles and miles away, the flat terrain collides with the mountains that were peeking out of the clouds Friday. The crime scene is off Shadow Mountain Road, 4 miles west of Highway 395 and about a 45-minute drive from Victorville.
The bodies and the two vans were gone Friday.
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The Sheriff’s Department had shed no new light on the mystery as of midday Friday. Officials have not even confirmed the six were shot to death despite the images of a blue van pocked by bullet holes. The victims’ names, ages and genders have not been announced. The coroner’s website did not list anyone Friday whose circumstances appeared to match these six.
If investigators are looking for any suspects, they haven’t said so publicly.
Also, were there any survivors? And who called 911 in an area where the nearest spot, Shadow Mountain Village, is a long-abandoned mining town?
The Sheriff’s Department said deputies were sent to the area where the crime occurred around 8:15 p.m. to perform what is called a wellness check. Five bodies were immediately discovered, and the sixth was located Wednesday morning.
A Cal Poly Pomona criminologist on Thursday said the circumstances do not appear to point toward a drug cartel being involved.
