Body found by U-Haul workers wrapped in plastic, cardboard and duct tape in the back of an abandoned rental truck is identified as a woman, 29, who was missing for two months after flying from Dallas to Los Angeles
- Ashley Manning, 29, was identified as the deceased body discovered in a U-Haul truck on Wednesday
- Manning’s family reported her missing in November after she flew from Dallas, Texas, to Los Angeles, California
- Body was found tightly wrapped in back of U-Haul moving truck that had been rented in Anaheim, California, and then abandoned
- U-Haul workers found the missing vehicle and made the grisly discovery while doing inventory at a storage facility
- Police are investigating it as a suspicious death, but they are not calling it a homicide yet
- A cause of death has not yet been determined
A body found tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, cardboard and duct tape inside an abandoned U-Haul at a storage facility in California was identified as a 29-year-old woman who’s been missing for two months.
Authorities confirmed the deceased as Ashley Manning of Anaheim, whose family reported her missing in November after traveling from Texas to California.
The cause of death has not been disclosed as results from a toxicology report are pending.
Ashley Manning (pictured) was identified by authorities as the deceased body found wrapped in plastic wrap, duct tape and cardboard in the back of an abandoned U-Hauk truck on Wednesday
According to a Facebook post from Manning’s sister, the woman flew from Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport on November 13.
‘We have confirmation that she made it to LAX and are working with police to pull video footage to see what car she got into an run license plates,’ Taylor Manning wrote.
Manning (left and right) was reported missing by her family in November after she flew from Dallas to Los Angeles on the 13th
A cause of death has not yet been determined by California authorities and they have not labeled the case as a homicide
After Manning was identified as the deceased, Taylor expressed her grief in a post addressing the revelation.
She wrote: ‘It’s is with a very heavy heart that I share with everyone here that my sisters body was found on Wednesday afternoon. As a family we are trying to navigate this tragedy and this extremely hard time.’
‘Hug your family members a little closer today, and please say a prayer for mine.’
Taylor Manning: ‘It’s is with a very heavy heart that I share with everyone here that my sisters body was found on Wednesday afternoon. As a family we are trying to navigate this tragedy and this extremely hard time’
U-Haul employees made the gruesome discovery on Wednesday when they found Manning’s body in the back of a truck that had been rented then abandoned on a street.
Police officers were summoned to the scene near Orangethorpe Avenue and State College Boulevard in Fullerton after receiving a report of a possible body found in the trunk of a U-Haul truck.
The vehicle had been rented in Anaheim and never returned.
Anaheim police officers are pictured on the scene Wednesday investigating the discovery of a human body inside the trunk of a U-Haul truck
U-Haul workers found the body tightly wrapped in plastic, cardboard and duct tape (pictured on a stretcher)
The body, of which nothing is known as this time, was taken to a crime lab to be examined
U-Haul staff tracked down the missing truck to Santa Ana Canyon Road west of Gypsum Canyon in Anaheim just before 11am and towed it to a storage facility in Fullerton.
When workers opened the back of the vehicle to perform an inventory of its contents, they discovered a deceased person wrapped in plastic, cardboard and duct tape, reported CBS Los Angeles.
The body was so tightly packaged that it was impossible to tell the gender, race or age of the deceased, let alone his or her identity, according to Sgt. Shane Carringer, of the Anaheim Police Department.
Someone had rented the truck in Anaheim and failed to return it. It was found abandoned on a street Wednesday morning
U-Haul staff towed the truck to this storage facility in Fullerton, California, to perform an inventory of its contents
The human remains were then loaded into a coroner’s van and transported to a crime lab along with the U-Haul truck to be examined.
‘We are not calling it a homicide yet,’ Carringer said. ‘It’s obviously a suspicious death, and the circumstances in which the body was found are certainly suspicious, but we’re going to treat it as if it could potentially be a homicide.’
Carringer noted that even if the person in the vehicle did not die as a result of a homicide, other crimes may have been committed.
‘It could be something much less nefarious than a homicide,’ Carringer told KTLA5. ‘It could just be a natural death in which the body was disposed of or stored improperly.’