LAPD

Discovery of dead infant on 405 Freeway in Culver City linked to other murder, deadly crash

After the CHP discovered a dead infant and a injured child, other law enforcement agencies in other parts of LA County also began investigating two, separate deadly incidents.

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A series of violent and deadly incidents that happened across Los Angeles County Monday morning was being investigated as being connected.

Multiple law enforcement sources told NBC4’s I-Team that the discovery of two children on the 405 Freeway in Culver City is linked to a murder investigation in Woodland Hills and a deadly crash in Redondo Beach.

The first incident was reported at around 4:30 a.m. when first responders arrived on the northbound lanes of the freeway near the Howard Hughes Parkway and Sepulveda Boulevard exit to discover an infant and a child.

The baby girl, who may be between 5 and 6 months old, was declared dead at the scene while another 9-year-old girl, was taken to a hospital for “moderate injuries,” according to the California Highway Patrol.

Then about 30 minutes later, a deadly crash was reported on Pacific Coast Highway near Vincent Street in Redondo Beach.

"Emergency services responded and located the unresponsive female driver, who was pronounced deceased by paramedics from the Redondo Beach Fire Department,'' Redondo Beach police said.

Then at around 7:35 a.m. more than 30 miles away from the crash site, the Los Angeles Police Department got a call about a “possible victim down” at the Montecito Apartments on the 6200 block of Variel Avenue in Woodland Hills. 

"I woke up in the middle of the night around 3:40 to screaming and commotion, it lasted about a minute  and I was really groggy and I just went back to sleep," one neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said.

The neighbor said there was fighting the night before. She said a man and woman lived next door to her for about a year with their two children.

"This morning I was getting up to go to work and I left and I walk out front door and they are immediately to the left of us and I see their front door wide open and blood coming from their apartment all the way into the hallway to the elevator and I see blood on the walls," the neighbor said.

Neighbors say the family kept to themselves, but at night, especially in the past few months, fighting, screaming, and commotion could be heard coming from their unit.

Responding officers discovered one person dead at the location.

“While conducting their investigation homicide detectives learned of two additional incidents that occurred earlier in the morning, one on the 405 Freeway involving two young children and a second in Redondo Beach involving a traffic collision,” the LAPD said in a social media post.  

“At this time, Valley Bureau Homicide detectives are working with the California Highway Patrol on the incident involving the two children and believe it is connected to the Topanga homicide scene.”

The LAPD also confirmed it’s working with the CHP as well as Redondo Beach Police Department and the LA County Coroner’s Office to determine how the deadly incidents are related. 

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