CA- 6 people found shot to death in remote desert area of El Mirage - Jan 2024 *ARRESTS*

[Knox]

This looks like something you'd see across the border in regards to cartel violence, but it's rare here. I think this just has to be drug related though. I scrolled around using Google Earth to see if there are some grow operations in the area, and there are several. It's impossible to know if these are legitimate or not, of course.

Locals commenting on various news articles, say the area "is known for illegal grows".

I'm fairly certain I found the calls -

187= Murder
RTF= Report To Follow
NAT= Necessary Action Taken

1/23/2024 8:16:21 PM	VV	VV240230205	VVR2400318	187	RTF	LESSING AVE & CHAMBRAY ST ,HEL
1/23/2024 8:13:07 PM	VV	VV240230204		W911	NAT	LESSING AVE & CHAMBRAY ST ,HEL

Dispatch Call Log - San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department

Dispatch Call Log Calendar Loading view. [{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"Law Enforcement Response to Homeless","description":"<p>Course Description The course will educate patrol officers on laws related to property, and search and seizure specific to homeless...

wp.sbcounty.gov

Matches the time listed in the Nixle post -


SBSD - HeadquartersWednesday January 24th, 2024 :: 12:37 p.m. PST

Detectives Investigating Homicide in El Mirage​

DATE/TIME: January 23, 2024, 8:16 p.m.

INCIDENT: Homicide Investigation

LOCATION: Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road, El Mirage, CA

SUSPECT(S): Unknown

VICTIM(S): Pending Positive Identification and Next of Kin Notification


SUMMARY: On Tuesday, January 23, 2024, at approximately 8:16 p.m., deputies responded to Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road, a remote desert area in El Mirage, for a well check. Upon arrival, deputies located multiple deceased individuals.

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Specialized Investigations Division, Homicide Detail, responded and are conducting the investigation. Six individuals have been confirmed deceased. No arrests have been made. The investigation is continuing, and additional information will be released when available.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS AN ACTIVE AND ONGOING INVESTIGATION. THE INFORMATION OBTAINED AT THIS TIME IS PRELIMINARY AND MAY CHANGE AS ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE IS COLLECTED, ANALYZED, PROCESSED AND REVIEWED. SOME INFORMATION MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME, EITHER IT IS UNKNOWN OR IT MAY JEAPORDIZE THE INTEGRITY OF THE INVESTIGATION.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the Specialized Investigations Division at (909) 890-4904. Callers can remain anonymous and contact We-Tip at 800-78CRIME or www.wetip.com.

Refer: Public Affairs Division

Station: Specialized Investigations Division

Phone No. (909) 890-4904

Case No. DR#242400318

SHANNON D. DICUS, Sheriff-Coroner
San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department
Address/Location
SBSD - Headquarters
655 E 3rd St
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Contact
Emergency: 9-1-1
Non-emergencies: 909-387-3700

Detectives Investigating Homicide in El Mirage from SBSD - Headquarters : Nixle

DATE/TIME: January 23, 2024, 8:16 p.m. INCIDENT: Homicide Investigation LOCATION: Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road, El Mirage, CA SUSPECT(S): Unknown VICTIM(S): Pending ...

local.nixle.com

 

[10ofRods]

And what is the welfare check for? "Please check on my friends who are in the middle of the desert in El Mirage?"

"The area, about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles and about 20 miles northwest of Victorville, is so remote that the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department called in help from the California Highway Patrol’s Aviation Division to find the scene, Rodriguez said."

I wonder who called in a welfare check and how it was worded.

A welfare check can result from a short or terse communication, such as "I think there's people down on the ground" in such and such a place. Sounds like the caller may have been vague (hence the aviation call-in). "Off the 395 north of El Mirage." It's true that roads are few and far between in that particular area - even another 5 miles away would have landed the incident in a more populated area.

It's just 10-15 miles north of the route that hundreds of thousands of Californians take if they are going to Vegas or Grand Canyon or the Utah NPs. It's very close to Edwards AFB (by desert standards). It's also just off the route that my family takes when we go to "the snow" in the San Bernardino Mountains.

It's selfish, but I hope it's not road rage and that it wasn't a family in that vehicle. My first thought was, of course, drugs or gang related. San Bernardino County is the largest county in the world, IIRC, and LE are stretched then. And there's a lot of land where no one lives, because no water. Which is why I do not believe it's a spot for "illegal grows" (which have become a thing of the past - a decade or so - due to no water and legal cannabis being grown in rainy NorCal). The area around there is more known for meth, according to my LE friends, or other stuff. You can see on Google Maps that there's no greenery out there. And little short roads meant to be the beginnings of housing tracts (from maybe 40 years ago) - housing that never happened.

IMO.

 

[Knox]

Interesting that there are two calls listed, not just one. Was the second call after someone saw a body? They said someone called in a "welfare check", that just seems weird to me.

 

[Dawookie]

That article was published 2 1/2 years ago.

Clearly, the situation is much worse now. It's very chilling hearing about the theft of water from residents and long-term agricultural farms, from the flora and fauna and the violence it all seeds throughout.

Living in the general area, it's so much worse than people know. For a while on our local scanner page, it seemed like every other call was for water theft. The pics of grows after they are done are just horrible. Looks like a junkyard, all sorts of chemicals everywhere, it's just mind blowing.

 

[10ofRods]

If they heard shots, no one would think it was unusual.

Lots of unofficial target practice goes on in these kinds of areas. You'd really have to set a really big brush fire to get any notice from anyone around there.

True - and there's hardly any brush. The distance between those creosote bushes is pretty wide (and they are fire resistent).

I love your description of it as a dead zone - when we're going up the 395 to Whitney or the Tuolumne side of Yosemite, we've learned to avoid it by going further up Highway 5 and cutting east so as to arrive nearer Ridgecrest (which still has a civilized core of people living in it, IMO).

 

[Dawookie]

A welfare check can result from a short or terse communication, such as "I think there's people down on the ground" in such and such a place. Sounds like the caller may have been vague (hence the aviation call-in). "Off the 395 north of El Mirage." It's true that roads are few and far between in that particular area - even another 5 miles away would have landed the incident in a more populated area.

It's just 10-15 miles north of the route that hundreds of thousands of Californians take if they are going to Vegas or Grand Canyon or the Utah NPs. It's very close to Edwards AFB (by desert standards). It's also just off the route that my family takes when we go to "the snow" in the San Bernardino Mountains.

It's selfish, but I hope it's not road rage and that it wasn't a family in that vehicle. My first thought was, of course, drugs or gang related. San Bernardino County is the largest county in the world, IIRC, and LE are stretched then. And there's a lot of land where no one lives, because no water. Which is why I do not believe it's a spot for "illegal grows" (which have become a thing of the past - a decade or so - due to no water and legal cannabis being grown in rainy NorCal). The area around there is more known for meth, according to my LE friends, or other stuff. You can see on Google Maps that there's no greenery out there. And little short roads meant to be the beginnings of housing tracts (from maybe 40 years ago) - housing that never happened.

IMO.

Meth in the general area runs rampants. I remember when I was about 21-22ish there was a meth lab that blew up about a quarter mile from the Lancaster sheriff's station. I know way to many people whose lives have been ruined by it

 

[10ofRods]

Living in the general area, it's so much worse than people know. For a while on our local scanner page, it seemed like every other call was for water theft. The pics of grows after they are done are just horrible. Looks like a junkyard, all sorts of chemicals everywhere, it's just mind blowing.

I'm so glad you brought this up (the nexus of crime that surrounds the crime on which this thread is based). I totally agree - it's gotten worse. I try to follow, but I don't live where you do and so appreciate your details. The "grows" you're describing sound like biochemical drug production (meth) not marijuana (although water theft...hmmm...) When we are out that way we see the roadside signs, put up by landowners, begging for more LE. Or urging much harsher laws - I totally get why.

I've been following crime out your way for as long as I can remember (and I think my Dad did too). My mom's family moved from MO to 29 Palms when she was 2. They felt unsafe and water-poor there, and this was 1924. We have a section on WS for the Mendocino area, with its lush forests (and former illegal grows dominating the crime scene). But these desert crimes, disappearances and misadventures are still very much on our radar. It is just mind-blowing.

 

[Dawookie]

I'm so glad you brought this up (the nexus of crime that surrounds the crime on which this thread is based). I totally agree - it's gotten worse. I try to follow, but I don't live where you do and so appreciate your details. The "grows" you're describing sound like biochemical drug production (meth) not marijuana (although water theft...hmmm...) When we are out that way we see the roadside signs, put up by landowners, begging for more LE. Or urging much harsher laws - I totally get why.

I've been following crime out your way for as long as I can remember (and I think my Dad did too). My mom's family moved from MO to 29 Palms when she was 2. They felt unsafe and water-poor there, and this was 1924. We have a section on WS for the Mendocino area, with its lush forests (and former illegal grows dominating the crime scene). But these desert crimes, disappearances and misadventures are still very much on our radar. It is just mind-blowing.

I hear a lot more about the crime here than most because of several close friend who are long time LE in the area. They're definitely marijuana grows, chemical wise I'm talking about the illegal and banned fertilizers and pesticides they use. I know on quite a few they have to have a hazmat team come in to clean that stuff up.

Yeah I follow the section on that area as well. Have family ties to the area and my cousins ex wife unfortunately has a thread here. The crime that happens up in that area of the state is mind boggling but that's what comes with the illegal drug trade.

 

[Knox]

So what exactly happened? With so little information, the answer to that question remains a mystery.

"When I hear of a multi-victim homicide out in a very remote, desolate area like this, the first thing I think of is organized crime," said Bill Bodner, a former special agent in charge of the DEA who is now retired.

Bodner has no inside information on this case, but has extensive experience with organized crime rings. He shared some insight with ABC7 on Thursday.

"I know from my experience, that part of the Inland Empire, there's a lot of organized crime involvement in unlicensed cannabis cultivation," said Bodner. "There's also a lot of involvement in what are called methamphetamine conversion laboratories, taking liquid methamphetamine smuggled across the border, bringing it to a desolate area, and then converting it to crystal meth, where it can be sold."

Mystery in the Mojave Desert: Questions remain after 6 bodies found near El Mirage

Two days after deputies found the bodies of six people at a remote dirt crossroads in the Mojave Desert near El Mirage, many questions remain unanswered.

abc7.com

 

[Knox]

There's also the question about how the call came into dispatch in the first place. Detectives said the caller requested a wellness check.

They did not call to report the discovery of the bodies or to report a fire. Bodner said that suggests that person may have somehow been involved in the incident.

"Whether it's friends of theirs, associates of theirs, who knows? But it sounds like, potentially, someone who was there, or someone who knew, at least, what happened there."

So who is that person?

The sheriff's department said at this point, detectives do not know the identity of the caller.

Mystery in the Mojave Desert: Questions remain after 6 bodies found near El Mirage

Two days after deputies found the bodies of six people at a remote dirt crossroads in the Mojave Desert near El Mirage, many questions remain unanswered.

abc7.com

 

[Hathor16]

I'm wondering if one of the 6 was talking on their phone when the trouble first started. Maybe whoever was on the other end heard something that made them worry about their friend and call it in?

 

[Dre]

Similar to California City, with all of the roads mapped out but desolate, really creeped me out for something like this to happen when I did research on it.

I would agree that this likely would have been some sort of “organized crime” situation, and not some random gathering that went sideways.

The desolation of the desert is a bit nightmarish to me.. jmo

 

[Shari66]

I used to live out there, and still have friends there. Drugs are rampant there, so a drug deal gone bad is not out of the question.

 

[10ofRods]

I hear a lot more about the crime here than most because of several close friend who are long time LE in the area. They're definitely marijuana grows, chemical wise I'm talking about the illegal and banned fertilizers and pesticides they use. I know on quite a few they have to have a hazmat team come in to clean that stuff up.

Yeah I follow the section on that area as well. Have family ties to the area and my cousins ex wife unfortunately has a thread here. The crime that happens up in that area of the state is mind boggling but that's what comes with the illegal drug trade.

I would think the illegal grows would be in the more hilly sections of SBC, but would love to hear more. The water theft issues must align with illegal grows? Is that what you think? Regardless, the grows require lots of water and it has to come from somewhere - one can see in Google maps that the actual intersection (and I'd say surrounding 5 square miles) is just desert scrub, it's very sparse.

Do people sometimes use greenhouses for illegal grows, as they do in L.A. County?

Sorry to hear about your cousins ex-wife. I have family out that way too (or did until very recently). I know about the meth situation because one of my cousins was addicted out that way (Palmdale) and then moved to Bakersfield to get clean, fell into it again, and then moved to Vegas to get clean (!) He died of related complications in his 40's. His brother still lives in Bakersfield.

When we're out on the edge of that area (where we've witnessed two assaults - one in commission of a robbery at a gas station and where other stuff has happened), I just assume that nearly anyone I meet or see could be using. Not weed. Meth, opiates, illegal ketamine, etc. My friends who decided to go to CSU Bakersfield (and my friend who teaches in Palmdale) say that the drugs are rampant everywhere out there.

IMO.

 

[Dawookie]

I would think the illegal grows would be in the more hilly sections of SBC, but would love to hear more. The water theft issues must align with illegal grows? Is that what you think? Regardless, the grows require lots of water and it has to come from somewhere - one can see in Google maps that the actual intersection (and I'd say surrounding 5 square miles) is just desert scrub, it's very sparse.

Do people sometimes use greenhouses for illegal grows, as they do in L.A. County?

Sorry to hear about your cousins ex-wife. I have family out that way too (or did until very recently). I know about the meth situation because one of my cousins was addicted out that way (Palmdale) and then moved to Bakersfield to get clean, fell into it again, and then moved to Vegas to get clean (!) He died of related complications in his 40's. His brother still lives in Bakersfield.

When we're out on the edge of that area (where we've witnessed two assaults - one in commission of a robbery at a gas station and where other stuff has happened), I just assume that nearly anyone I meet or see could be using. Not weed. Meth, opiates, illegal ketamine, etc. My friends who decided to go to CSU Bakersfield (and my friend who teaches in Palmdale) say that the drugs are rampant everywhere out there.

IMO.

They're spread out everywhere from the far east of Lancaster/Palmdale into SBC. I live in Lancaster and they were busting them left and right for a long time. Yeah the water theft most definitely aligns with the illegal grows. There wasnt really any before the illegal grows but after they started, it went through the roof because of how much water they require.

Yeah the grows are all basically the same, PVC and visqueen from a hardware store. Cheap, easy and quick.

Thank you, she was part of Humboldt 5 and they have a POI but no evidence.

The hard drug problem out here is ridiculous and getting even worse with Fentanyl. My sister got into but thankfully had her rock bottom moment and has been clean for almost 20 years. When I was in my late teens early 20s we called it the Methalope Valley for a good reason, it was and still is everywhere.

Edit. As soon as I got done with this just saw they busted a six location illegal grows and found nearly 4400 plants and 500 pounds

 

[(RET)Army_Investigator]

Approximate CS location on Bing Maps Streetside (hills in background match up with news video; also what is shown as Lessing Ave. on maps is actually Green Bush Ave. in the field)

Bing.......maps? Now that's something I didn't have on the bingo card. Who knew .. appreciate it though. Not sure how they got the pictures for the street view if you will but Google didn't get up there

 

[Jo in Calif]

“I highly doubt based on where this took place that there are gangs that are active in this area,” he said.

To better gauge a possible motive, Pyrooz said he would be looking for the age of the victims, their criminal histories and any kind of groups or affiliations they might have had. He also would look to see if they had any ties to drugs.

Based on the information out there, it appeared to Pyrooz that the people had access to one another and there was some level of trust that would allow them to be in one another’s each other’s company.

“There are a lot of people who use leaps of logic to say they’re cartel hits or organized crime groups, but we really don’t know yet,” he said. “I worry about the narrative that’s getting in front of the investigation.”

Mystery shrouds six bodies found in San Bernardino desert. Could it have been gang-motivated?

Information that investigators have still not released — the age of the dead and their criminal history, for example — would help give a better idea of a possible motive to the killings, experts say.

www.latimes.com

 

[Herat]

“I highly doubt based on where this took place that there are gangs that are active in this area,” he said.

To better gauge a possible motive, Pyrooz said he would be looking for the age of the victims, their criminal histories and any kind of groups or affiliations they might have had. He also would look to see if they had any ties to drugs.

Based on the information out there, it appeared to Pyrooz that the people had access to one another and there was some level of trust that would allow them to be in one another’s each other’s company.

“There are a lot of people who use leaps of logic to say they’re cartel hits or organized crime groups, but we really don’t know yet,” he said. “I worry about the narrative that’s getting in front of the investigation.”

Mystery shrouds six bodies found in San Bernardino desert. Could it have been gang-motivated?

Information that investigators have still not released — the age of the dead and their criminal history, for example — would help give a better idea of a possible motive to the killings, experts say.

www.latimes.com

From the surroundings, with the proximity to all those grow houses, my suspicions are that they are illegal immigrants who worked together at the lowest level for some grow house in the area and were caught stealing or dealing on the side and were offed as a warning to others who work in these places.

That might be why it is taking so long to identify the decedents.

 

[Dawookie]

“I highly doubt based on where this took place that there are gangs that are active in this area,” he said.

To better gauge a possible motive, Pyrooz said he would be looking for the age of the victims, their criminal histories and any kind of groups or affiliations they might have had. He also would look to see if they had any ties to drugs.

Based on the information out there, it appeared to Pyrooz that the people had access to one another and there was some level of trust that would allow them to be in one another’s each other’s company.

“There are a lot of people who use leaps of logic to say they’re cartel hits or organized crime groups, but we really don’t know yet,” he said. “I worry about the narrative that’s getting in front of the investigation.”

Mystery shrouds six bodies found in San Bernardino desert. Could it have been gang-motivated?

Information that investigators have still not released — the age of the dead and their criminal history, for example — would help give a better idea of a possible motive to the killings, experts say.

www.latimes.com

Not sure why the LA Times would go to a professor in Colorado to get an opinion but there's definitely gang activity in Adelanto and Victorville which isn't that far away. One of them has been active for about 50 years and has ties to the Mexican Mafia. They were just involved in a huge fight at the beginning of December with another gang in Adelanto. You also have OMGs like the Vagos and Mongols in the area as well.

As to the other professor in the article, while the Cartels don't generally operate in the US, they have definitely operated in the general area. There was a giant illegal grow bust by LASD in the summer of 2021 at the east end of the Antelope Valley where a large number of them were definitely cartel connected. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that there are other illegal grows in the vicinity of where this took place that are cartel connected as well.

Not to say these murders are cartel or gang related but it definitely would not surprise at all if they were connected to a cartel or other organized crime illegal grow.

 

[ifindedout]

Bing.......maps? Now that's something I didn't have on the bingo card. Who knew .. appreciate it though. Not sure how they got the pictures for the street view if you will but Google didn't get up there

Bing has their own vehicles, just like Google Maps and Apple Maps.