ARTESIA : Woman Believed Dead Is in Stable Condition

An unidentified woman was in stable condition Thursday in an Artesia Hospital, two days after she was discovered in a vacant Hawaiian Gardens garage and thought to be dead.

The woman, who suffered massive head injuries, was thought to be a murder victim when found Monday by a resident looking in the garage in the 21800 block of Hawaiian Avenue, said sheriff’s Deputy Rich Erickson. But when detectives began to investigate, they noticed that she was breathing. The woman was in a pool of dried blood and appeared to have been there three or four days, Erickson said.

Authorities were trying to identify the woman, who was described as a 5-foot-2 blonde, about 18 to 24 years old with a large tattoo of a butterfly above her left breast.