By Daily Press Staff – John F. Muller
A homeless man fell to his death over the holiday weekend after he rolled off the Palisades Bluffs and onto the Pacific Coast Highway. The man’s death marked the second unnatural death of a local transient in four days.
It’s unclear whether the death was an accident or suicide. Awitness notified Santa Monica Police at 7:22 a.m. Saturday after he was drawn to 33-year-old David Villanueva’s falling body by dust rising from the bluffs. Villanueva fell facedown in the northbound lane of the PCH’s 1200 block. He was pronounced dead at 8:27 a.m. at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center.
David Campbell, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner, said the coroner’s office would conduct an autopsy in the next few days. Villanueva’s ex-wife was notified of his death, Campbell added. The last she heard of Villanueva’s whereabouts, he was staying in a homeless shelter in the Pasadena area.
The transient found murdered on June 30 near the entrance to the YMCA parking lot on Sixth Street has been identified as Scott Dishmon. The 35-year-old man was found dead at 5:57 a.m., and police are investigating the homicide. No suspects have been identified.
Dishmon suffered deep lacerations to the back of his head, said Campbell, who described the transient as a victim of “blunt force head trauma.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 9, 2004. Read the original PDF.