Six people have been found dead in the Mojave Desert in southern California, in a scene reminiscent of the movie No Country For Old Men.
Police are investigating as to who is behind the killings after the half-dozen bodies were found strewn in a desolate patch of the desert, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Officers responding to a call discovered the bodies on Tuesday night in a remote area of flat desert scrub off Highway 395 near El Mirage, around 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, sheriff’s spokesperson Mara Rodriguez told reporters.
No information about the deceased has so far been made public.
Officials said the cause and manner of deaths had yet to be confirmed, but the Victor Valley News Group reported that the victims had been shot.
Five bodies were initially reported, but Ms Rodriguez said the remains of a sixth victim had been found in the course of the investigation.
Los Angeles television station KTLA-TV said aerial footage from the scene showed multiple bloodied bodies on the ground with dozens of evidence markers and bullet casings surrounding them.
Some of the victims also appeared to have been burned, the channel said, adding that the images were too graphic to put on the air.
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Two vehicles – a blue SUV and a white van – were also found at the scene.
KTLA described the SUV as riddled with bullet holes with some of its windows blown out adding that one of the bodies was found in one of the vehicles.
Police said no arrests had been made, and offered no explanation for the motive or circumstances surrounding the killings.
El Mirage is an unincorporated community that lies adjacent to a flat, dry lake bed in the western Victor Valley of the Mojave Desert.
The Oscar winning film No Country For Old Men, based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, features a scene where multiple people are murdered in a drug-deal-gone-wrong in the Texas desert near the Mexican border.
