An unidentified, partially clothed woman’s body was found Friday
morning with a bag over her head at the dead-end of C Street.
Hollister – An unidentified, partially clothed woman’s body was found Friday morning with a bag over her head at the dead-end of C Street.
Police are investigating it as the city’s third homicide in just four months and the fifth in the past year.
Authorities have not identified any suspects, but classified it as a homicide based on the woman’s injuries, Capt. Bob Brooks said.
Police have no suspects, Brooks said. Because circumstances surrounding her death were unknown, he warned that the public should remain aware.
“We can’t determine at this time why this happened,” Brooks said.
A neighbor found the woman and called police at 8:43am Friday, Brooks said. Authorities sealed off the dead-end of C Street and a field stretching to the San Benito River west of the neighborhood.
Investigators do not know how or when the woman died. Evidence was collected at the scene, but police did not find a weapon, Brooks said.
“We haven’t even established that it happened here,” Brooks said, standing at the scene Friday.
Josh Wardell, who was leaving for work, saw the woman’s body as he drove away from his home Friday morning. He called police when he saw a trash bag over her head.
“Her clothes were pulled up to her neck and wrapped all around her head,” Wardell said.
Investigators from the California Department of Justice’s crime lab in Watsonville arrived just after noon to help.
Hollister police officers, with assistance of the California Highway Patrol, searched the field beyond the dead-end of C Street once DOJ investigators arrived. Authorities went door-to-door in the morning, interviewing neighbors.
Nearby residents expressed concerns as they watched authorities investigate the scene. Ricardo Alvarez, who lives around the corner, said he often sees teenagers entering the field at the end of C Street.
“It’s so dark on that corner,” Alvarez said. “They should put a light right there.”
Dawn Dubrul has lived with her family in the C Street neighborhood for 10 years. She has felt safe there but said the neighborhood has undergone a transformation in recent years.
“It’s changed,” Dubrul said. “There’s more rentals now than there used to be.”
A woman who lives several houses down from the site said she was surprised to hear of the homicide because the neighborhood is usually quiet.
“It’s just mainly kids who are always out here,” Tammie Galvan said.
