Dead Body Found Inside Recycling Center Sparks Police Probe

An investigation has been launched after the body of a man was discovered inside a recycling plant on Monday afternoon.

The grim find was made shortly before midday at the facility in Sante Fe Springs, California, according to local news channel ABC 7. It wasn't clear exactly what condition the body was in, or where the remains were found.

Workers at the center, in the 9000 block of Norwalk Boulevard near Los Nietos Road, told ABC 7 that they had been sent home for the rest of the day as the police probe unfolded.

The Whittier Police Department is investigating the circumstances as detectives try to work out how the man died and how he came to be at the site, although officials haven't yet revealed whether they believe the death was suspicious.

Aerial footage of the plant, filmed by ABC 7, showed police tape sealing off an open door to the facility, with officers ducking underneath it as they came and went.

Newsweek has reached out to Whittier Police Department for further information.

It isn't the first time human remains have been discovered at a recycling plant.

Horrifyingly, a man's body was found moving along a conveyor belt at a recycling center in Texas in December 2020. Police set up a mobile crime lab at the plant in Creedmore, 15 miles south of Austin.

Kristen Dark of Travis County Sheriff's Office said: "Most likely, this body got here off a truck." She said she believed the death was suspicious, and that the investigation was in the early stages and added that an autopsy would "determine if foul play was involved."

Just one month later, in January 2021, a body was found at a recycling facility in Frederickson, in Washington state. The body arrived with recyclables at the plant in Pierce County, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

Such discoveries don't necessarily mean that a murderer has tried to dispose of a body.

For example, when the remains of a man in his 50s were found at the Hardy Road Landfill in Harris County, Texas, police said they were keeping an open mind, but didn't suspect foul play.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the working theory was that the man was homeless and had climbed inside a dumpster before the receptacle was picked up and taken to the landfill.