Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau confirmed Monday that the investigation into a woman being found dead at Castaic Lake last week is being currently treated as a suicide.
The woman, identified as a 48-year-old Castaic resident, was found at approximately 6:40 p.m. Thursday, near Lake Hughes Road and Ball Point Road, after having suffered what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“The coroner deferred the cause of death but usually that’s for toxicology and things like that,” said Capt. Joe Mendoza of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau. “But it’s being investigated as a suicide.”
On the night of the shooting, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials confirmed that they were responding to a report of fatal gunshot wound victim being found on an embankment near Castaic Lake.
Although L.A. County Fire Department paramedics had been called out, no one was transported to the hospital and officials from the L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office had been dispatched to the scene.