And yet another body found in a burned out car.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Dec-15-Thu-2005/news/4803713.htmlBody found in another burned car
Police look at Route 160 incident, earlier one
By FRANK CURRERI
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Homicide detectives on Wednesday found a body in the trunk of a burning car and are investigating whether the death is connected to a similar discovery earlier this week.
A trucker traveling state Route 160 from Pahrump to Las Vegas at 4:41 a.m. Wednesday spotted a fire about a half mile from the road, said Las Vegas police Lt. Tom Monahan.
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The trucker traced the fire to a vehicle on nearby Sandy Valley Road and summoned firefighters to the scene.
After extinguishing the blaze, firefighters noticed possible human remains inside the trunk of the 2003 Jaguar and called police.
The body was transported to the Clark County coroner's office for an autopsy, Monahan said, but had been burned beyond recognition.
Investigators did gather one key clue that jump-started their probe.
"There was a license plate, a Nevada plate" at the scene, Monahan said.
Authorities have contacted the registered owner of the vehicle and determined it had not been reported stolen, Monahan said.
"We know that the registered owner did not give the car to somebody," Monahan said, declining to identify the car's owner.
It was unclear Wednesday whether there was any type of relationship between the car's owner and the victim, since the victim's identity was unknown.
"We have no suspects and no one is under arrest," Monahan said.
The discovery is similar to another Monday night near Gypsum Plant, about five miles east of the intersection of Lake Mead and Hollywood boulevards. In that incident, homicide detectives inspected a torched Toyota with a dead passenger inside.
Once again, the license plate was preserved, but investigators have not been able to locate the registered owner or determine whether the owner is actually the victim, Monahan said.
"We have not seen any suggestion that they're (the two incidents) related," Monahan said. "But good common sense requires that we consider that possibility.
Monahan offered a possible theory for the car fires, saying, "We've had circumstances where somebody might hear about new ways to destroy evidence or commit a murder, and somebody may copy it."
The investigation into the deaths could be slowed if coroner officials are unable to identify the bodies through conventional means.
Dental records, for example, can be used to identify badly burned bodies, but the process often takes weeks.
