body found

Body Found Inside Refrigerator at Pot-Growing Operation in Sun Valley

The body of a man was found stuffed inside a refrigerator at a Southern California home that housed an illegal marijuana-growing operation, police said.

Officers received a call at 5:30 a.m. Sunday about the body in the 11000 block of Runnymede Street in Sun Valley, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. Doug Humphrey. When officers arrived, they forced their way into the home and made their way to the backyard, where they found the body in an unplugged refrigerator.

It was unclear how long the body had been there or how he died. Humphrey said the man appeared to be about 30 years old.

"That’s kind of freaky," said next door neighbor Mickie Lambert after learning why officers had decended on the home. "I smelled something yesterday."

No arrests were made as of Sunday night.

The refrigerator, with the man's body still inside, was wheeled out of the backyard, strapped into a coroner’s truck and hauled off late in the afternoon.

Police also uncovered a pot-growing operation with hundreds of plants inside the back of a garage.

Homicide investigators interviewed neighbors in search of clues. They were also trying to find the owners of a Bentley and Jaguar parked in the home's driveway.

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