Homicide investigators called to Lakeland Village parcel

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Friday, January 25, 2008 11:42 PM PST ∞

LAKELAND VILLAGE ---- Homicide investigators converged on an undeveloped parcel along Grand Avenue in Lakeland Village on Friday after a body was found there.

The call came in about 11:30 a.m., said Riverside County sheriff's Investigator Jerry Franchville, spokesman for the department. That was the only detail provided by the department.

While the crime scene was obvious and a man sought for questioning in connection with a murder was later found and detained in a shopping center near Corona, by 11 p.m. the Sheriff's Department still had not released any information about the investigation.

Yellow crime scene tape lined a portion of the Lake Country Plaza at 16005 Grand Ave., at Sangston Drive, where deputies, investigators, forensic technicians and two deputy district attorneys gathered. At 4:45 p.m., a mobile command post trailer from the sheriff's Lake Elsinore station arrived and parked in the lot.

The parcel in question sits between that center and M&M Market. The property is surrounded by a chain-link fence with barbed wire on the top.

No street address was visible, but there was a sign in front advertising the lot as being an available commercial property. Calls to the developer offering the property were not returned.

On the parcel itself was a trailer with boxes and firewood outside as well as a dilapidated garage with a silver-gray van parked inside.

After holding a group briefing about 4 p.m., investigators entered through a gate near the shopping center parking lot and carefully made their way around the back of the trailer then along a slight embankment to the garage. Two forensic technicians took photographs inside the crime scene.

Also on the property was an older-model Ford Mustang for sale and a small boat with a sign advertising recreational vehicle storage. Calls to phone numbers found on both of those vehicles went to answering machines.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

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