[font=arial,sans-serif] Worker finds woman's body at city landfill
BY JASON WOMACK
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]A city sanitation worker found the body of a woman among the garbage at a city-owned landfill Tuesday morning, Lubbock police officials said.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Police identified the woman as Summer Lee Baldwin, 29.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The body was found inside a suitcase atop a 10-foot-high trash pile at the West Texas Region Disposal Facility about 10:15 a.m.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"We are treating this as a homicide," Assistant Police Chief Thomas Esparza said at the landfill Tuesday afternoon.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]A steady stream of police cars and garbage trucks drove through the gates of the landfill Tuesday.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The Lubbock County Medical Examiner's Office had removed the body by early afternoon.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Police could not comment Tuesday on the condition of the body or a cause of death, deferring to the pending autopsy.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"We don't know how she died, where she died or when she died," Esparza said.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The Lubbock County Sheriff's Office first responded to the landfill Tuesday morning. The office then turned the investigation over to police.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The landfill sits on 1,240 acres about 15 miles northwest of Lubbock on FM 2528. It serves the city and 16 counties on the South Plains, often receiving between 800 and 1,500 tons of garbage daily.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Landfill Manager John Cobb said the body was likely delivered to the facility on one of the trucks that unloaded at the site Tuesday morning.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Landfill employees cover trash dumped at the landfill every night with at least 6 inches of a soil and slurry mix.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Cobb said the refuse at the bottom of the landfill Tuesday was delivered by 40 trucks, which were all logged at the site.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"We're guessing it came off a city truck," he said. "We've had private up there and commercial up there. That's why it is a guess."[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The area where the body was found, a pile of garbage more than a hundred feet in diameter, serves as a dump site for commercial and city garbage trucks.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The trash heap sits at the bottom of a deep ravine, which is considered too dangerous for citizen use, Cobb said, pointing to the heavy machinery that pushed the garbage into large piles.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The worker discovered the body as he sorted through the trash, searching for car batteries, tires or large pieces of metal deemed unacceptable for the landfill.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"Something made him look in there," Cobb said. "Otherwise it would have gone unsolved."[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]To read the whole story go to : www.lubbockonline.com, you may have to register to view it entirely.
[/font]
BY JASON WOMACK
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]A city sanitation worker found the body of a woman among the garbage at a city-owned landfill Tuesday morning, Lubbock police officials said.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Police identified the woman as Summer Lee Baldwin, 29.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The body was found inside a suitcase atop a 10-foot-high trash pile at the West Texas Region Disposal Facility about 10:15 a.m.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"We are treating this as a homicide," Assistant Police Chief Thomas Esparza said at the landfill Tuesday afternoon.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]A steady stream of police cars and garbage trucks drove through the gates of the landfill Tuesday.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The Lubbock County Medical Examiner's Office had removed the body by early afternoon.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Police could not comment Tuesday on the condition of the body or a cause of death, deferring to the pending autopsy.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"We don't know how she died, where she died or when she died," Esparza said.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The Lubbock County Sheriff's Office first responded to the landfill Tuesday morning. The office then turned the investigation over to police.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The landfill sits on 1,240 acres about 15 miles northwest of Lubbock on FM 2528. It serves the city and 16 counties on the South Plains, often receiving between 800 and 1,500 tons of garbage daily.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Landfill Manager John Cobb said the body was likely delivered to the facility on one of the trucks that unloaded at the site Tuesday morning.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Landfill employees cover trash dumped at the landfill every night with at least 6 inches of a soil and slurry mix.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]Cobb said the refuse at the bottom of the landfill Tuesday was delivered by 40 trucks, which were all logged at the site.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"We're guessing it came off a city truck," he said. "We've had private up there and commercial up there. That's why it is a guess."[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The area where the body was found, a pile of garbage more than a hundred feet in diameter, serves as a dump site for commercial and city garbage trucks.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The trash heap sits at the bottom of a deep ravine, which is considered too dangerous for citizen use, Cobb said, pointing to the heavy machinery that pushed the garbage into large piles.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]The worker discovered the body as he sorted through the trash, searching for car batteries, tires or large pieces of metal deemed unacceptable for the landfill.[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]"Something made him look in there," Cobb said. "Otherwise it would have gone unsolved."[/font]
[font=arial,sans-serif]To read the whole story go to : www.lubbockonline.com, you may have to register to view it entirely.
[/font]