Malibu lifeguard cracks open suspiciously heavy barrel, finds a body

A man’s body was found in a barrel at Malibu Lagoon State Beach on Monday morning, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The barrel was first spotted Sunday but wasn’t opened until Monday morning, Lt. Hugo Reynaga of the sheriff’s homicide bureau said at a news conference.

Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, a maintenance worker from the state park saw the black plastic barrel floating in the lagoon and brought it in with a kayak, Reynaga said. The maintenance worker didn’t open it.

On Monday morning, about 10 a.m., a lifeguard on duty saw the same barrel — now back in the lagoon — swam out and brought it onto the beach, where he opened it and discovered the body, Reynaga said. A source familiar with the investigation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly said the barrel was opened because of its suspicious weight.

The origin of the barrel is still to be determined, he added, and it’s unclear whether it came in on the tide.

“At about 8 p.m., there’s a high tide here,” Reynaga said, “and there’s a possibility that the container could have come in from the ocean and then got stuck in the lagoon — but we don’t know.”

As homicide investigators look into the case, they will be examining footage from any video cameras in the area for clues, the lieutenant said.

Reynaga said he couldn’t address at this point what might have happened to the person whose remains ended up in the barrel.

As for how long the body had been there, he noted that “the foot didn’t look decomposed.”

A spokesperson for the city of Malibu referred questions to law enforcement. A representative with California State Parks said in a statement that the Sheriff’s Department was the lead agency on the investigation.

Former Malibu Mayor Jefferson Wagner said he passed by the lagoon Sunday evening and spotted the barrel farther north from where it was found and closer to the Pacific Coast Highway bridge overlooking the lagoon.

“I thought it was a toxic waste container when I saw it,” Wagner said.

Wagner, who has owned Zuma Jay Surf Shop for decades, said this was the first time he could recall anything like this happening in the community.

“This is not what happens in Malibu,” Wagner said, adding that he was “deeply disturbed. This is not a common occurrence. I mean, bodies in a barrel is just sad.”

The barrel was covered with an easy-up tent by Monday afternoon, with the body still inside, as homicide investigators waited for officials from the coroner’s office to arrive.

About 100 yards away, tourists sunned themselves on the surf side beach, a man surfed the shallow waves and a boy body-boarded on the water.