Second Body Is Found in Irvine Orange Grove : Crime: Discovery of man's corpse comes about a week after the body of a woman was found in the same field.

Second Body Is Found in Irvine Orange Grove : Crime: Discovery of man’s corpse comes about a week after the body of a woman was found in the same field.

By THUAN LE

April 1, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

IRVINE — A man’s body was found in an orange grove across from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station on Tuesday morning, almost a week after the partially decomposed body of a woman was discovered in the same field.

Different farm workers there found the corpses, about half a mile apart. Investigators “don’t feel there’s any connection between the two right now,” said Lt. Dick Olson, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The woman’s body “appeared to be dumped there, and it’s not yet known if (the man’s) body was dumped here or killed here.”

The dead man, who had no identification on him, was fully clothed and on his back several hundred yards into the grove off Sand Canyon Avenue, about half a mile south of Irvine Boulevard, officials said.

He had suffered head and neck injuries, Olson said. He appeared to be a migrant farm worker, about 25 to 30 years old. An autopsy is scheduled for this morning.

The man might have been dead for several hours when a worker for the Irvine Co. saw him, Olson said.

The woman’s body, which was still not identified Tuesday, appeared to have been in the grove for about a week when found Thursday. She was apparently killed by a blunt force that cracked her skull, authorities have said.

Farm worker Rojelio Cuevas said he was driving through the orange grove to check on water hoses shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday when he saw what appeared to be a body. Together with foreman Ramon Serrano, Cuevas went closer and saw a man whose face and neck had been slashed, they said.

The coincidence of finding two bodies in less than a week in the same orange grove did not escape the workers.

“After this, (Cuevas) is going to be thinking about the bodies when he goes to check the hoses by himself,” Serrano said. “I tell you, it’s a dangerous place.”

The woman is described as white, 5-foot-5 and 110 pounds, with brown hair and wearing a white, short-sleeve T-shirt, blue floral-print baggy pants with a drawstring and a pair of navy-blue shorts.