CLUES TO 2 DEATHS SOUGHT.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Sheriff's homicide investigators were looking into the separate discoveries of two bodies in isolated areas of the Antelope Valley.

The discoveries do not appear to be related, since one person appeared to have been dead for months and the other had been killed recently, officials said.

The first discovery was of the body of a woman, found by a jogger on a trail near Old Harold and Desert Oak drives just before 9 a.m. Sunday. Later that day a skull was discovered by a man scouring the desert with a metal detector near 45th Street East and Avenue E-3.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office was trying to identify the woman through her fingerprints. Initially reported to be in her teens, the woman is now believed to have been 30 or 40 years old, officials said.

The body had only been there from the night before, officials said. The woman appeared to have suffered head injuries, officials said, though the exact cause of death had not been determined Monday.

Officials said Monday that they were not sure whether the second body was that of a man or a woman. After the skull was found, authorities searched the area and on Monday unearthed more remains in a shallow grave.

The body appeared to have been there for months, officials said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lancaster sheriff's station at [phone], the Palmdale station at [phone] or the homicide bureau at [phone].