Plastic-wrapped dead body in U-Haul identified as missing woman, California cops say

Jared Gilmour

Investigators in Southern California have identified the woman whose body was reportedly discovered wrapped in plastic and cardboard in an abandoned U-Haul.

The dead woman is Ashley Manning, 29, of Anaheim, whose cause of death “has yet to be determined pending toxicology results,” the Anaheim Police Department said in a Facebook post on Friday.

Fullerton police said Wednesday that Anaheim homicide detectives had responded to a U-Haul outpost in Fullerton because a dead body turned up in a truck there, though police cautioned that “the investigation is being handled as a suspicious death and it has not been determined to be a homicide.”

Sgt. Shane Carringer of the Anaheim Police Department said Manning’s body was wrapped in plastic and cardboard when U-Haul employees found it while doing inventory on the truck, which had been rented but then abandoned, KTLA reports.

“During that inventory search, they discovered what they believed to be human remains, and it has been confirmed that it is human remains,” Carringer said, according to CBSLA.

Ashley Manning, a 29-year-old woman from Anaheim, California, was identified as the woman whose body was found wrapped in plastic and cardboard in an abandoned U-Haul this week.
Ashley Manning, a 29-year-old woman from Anaheim, California, was identified as the woman whose body was found wrapped in plastic and cardboard in an abandoned U-Haul this week.

But Carringer cautioned that the investigation is in its early stages, CBSLA reported, saying that “detectives will piece together everybody who was in possession of the truck and the timeline that this truck was out and who had it and where it was.”

Police said Manning was reported missing out of Los Angeles County in November, according to KTLA.

12 koalas ‘heroically’ rescued from Australian mega-fire by San Diego team, zoo says

“Even if we don’t have a homicide, we still may have potential crimes here we’re investigating,” Carringer said, according to KABC. “Ultimately somebody’s family is going to want answers as to why their loved one was found here in this condition.”

KTLA reported that Manning’s family said in a December Facebook post that she last contacted them in November when she was flying from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in Texas to Los Angeles International Airport.