Bodies Found in Wildfire Area Near Monrovia

AZUSA, CA - The bodies of two people were found Thursday in an area of the Angeles National Forest that was blackened by a recent wildfire.

Members of the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team located the remains, which were "significantly impacted by the effects of the fire," according to Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Trina Schrader.

Deputies will remain on the scene throughout the evening, and homicide detectives and representatives of the coroner's office are slated to resume their investigation at daybreak, Schrader said.

Firefighters were called about 2:20 p.m. to an area along North San Gabriel Canyon Road, near Morris Dam above Azusa, that was scorched by the San Gabriel Complex Fire last month, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Ricardo Pardo, the brother of a 16-year-old boy who went camping in the area just hours before the fire started the morning of June 20, told ABC7 that he found the bodies, and thinks they are those of his brother and cousin.

Pardo, along with family members and friends, have been searching for the pair and found skeletal remains of two people about 2 p.m., he told ABC7.

— City News Service, photo courtesy of the LASD