Deputies pulled a second body from the Dominguez Channel in Carson on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after a woman's body was found in the same waterway roughly three miles away. Authorities have not said whether the two deaths are connected, and no cause of death has been released in either case.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed the second discovery after deputies responded to the channel near Sepulveda Boulevard at around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, where they found an unresponsive body, according to NBC Los Angeles. A description of the victim has not yet been confirmed, though authorities said no further details were immediately available. CBS Los Angeles reported that LA County Fire crews were called in to assist Sheriff's deputies with the water retrieval near the 2100 block of East Sepulveda Boulevard, setting up a white canopy over the scene while broadcast reporters noted the victim appeared to be male.
The recovery came a day after authorities found the body of a woman in the channel on Tuesday, near the Victoria Golf Course around noon. That first site sits at 340 East 192nd Street in northern Carson, while the Sepulveda Boulevard location runs through the southern part of the city — the two spots separated by roughly three miles along the channel's route, per mapping from the SCGA. Broadcast footage from the first scene showed an unhoused encampment beneath a nearby overpass, according to the same reporting.
Connection Between the Two Deaths Remains Unclear
The station's report noted that whether the two incidents are connected has not been established. Authorities have not said whether foul play is suspected in either death, and it remains unknown whether the two victims knew each other or whether their deaths share any cause. Under California Government Code Section 27491, county medical examiners are required to investigate all sudden, unusual, or unverified deaths, including remains recovered from public waterways where the cause is not immediately clear, according to protocols outlined by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. That means formal autopsies and toxicology screens will likely be necessary before officials can determine how either person died.
Carson does not have its own police department; law enforcement in the city is provided under contract by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Carson Station, which holds primary investigative jurisdiction over the channel, per the department's own records.
Not the First Body Pulled From the Channel
This is not the first time a body has turned up in the Dominguez Channel in Carson. In July 2024, homicide detectives launched a suspicious death investigation after the body of 60-year-old Prisciliana Rose Douglas was recovered from the channel near East Carson Plaza Drive, with trauma present on her body, according to the Press-Telegram. Douglas had been reported missing from Los Angeles before her body was spotted in the Carson waterway, and Hoodline previously reported on her identification as a missing grandmother.
The Dominguez Channel itself is a 15.7-mile concrete flood control channel operated by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, draining urban runoff through South Bay cities including Hawthorne, Gardena, Torrance, and Carson before emptying into the Port of Los Angeles, according to LA County Public Works records. The surrounding watershed spans roughly 110 to 133 square miles, with more than 80% of that land developed into dense residential, commercial, and industrial areas — a density that creates multiple public access points and storm drain connections along the levee system, the same records show.
Channel Has Drawn Scrutiny Before
The waterway has faced public scrutiny in the past for reasons beyond crime. In February, a Los Angeles County jury awarded nearly $8.9 million in damages to 24 Carson residents following a 2021 warehouse fire that sent chemical runoff into the channel and produced a toxic hydrogen sulfide odor crisis, as Hoodline reported in its piece on Carson's channel stench lawsuit.
South Bay drainage channels have also been the scene of other violent crime investigations in recent years. In January, police announced the arrest of four suspects — including a juvenile apprehended in Carson — in connection with the August 2025 shooting deaths of two unhoused men found near Compton Creek, another major South Bay drainage channel, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of the Long Beach double homicide arrests. Authorities have not indicated any link between that case and the two bodies recovered this week.
For now, the Sheriff's Department has released no further details about either victim's identity, and it remains unclear when autopsy results might clarify the cause or manner of death in either case.
