POLLOCK PINES, Calif. — A small wildfire in the timber country southeast of Pollock Pines led firefighters to a grim discovery last week: the burned body of an unidentified woman.
The discovery was made around 7 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, near Bonetti Road and Mormon Emigrant Trail, in a remote, heavily forested portion of El Dorado County.
The fire was reported by employees of a private timber company working in the area. Crews from the Cal Fire Amador-El Dorado Unit, the U.S. Forest Service’s Eldorado National Forest and El Dorado County Fire responded and quickly extinguished the blaze.
The fire burned about one-tenth of an acre, according to KCRA.
But what initially appeared to be a small wildland fire quickly became a death investigation.
Burned body found in fire footprint
El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies responded after the body was discovered. Investigators and coroner’s detectives were subsequently called to the scene, according to Sgt. Jesse Dacanay of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.
Cal Fire Amador-El Dorado Unit spokesperson Wendy Oakes confirmed that the body was found within the fire’s footprint.
Dacanay told SFGATE that the woman had been burned and that investigators currently have limited information about her.
“She’s unidentified at this time.”
Authorities have not released the woman’s age or identity. Her cause of death remains undetermined pending further investigation and an autopsy.
Just as importantly, investigators have not established that the fire caused the woman’s death.
At this point, it remains unknown whether she died before the fire, during the fire or under circumstances unrelated to the fire.
Remote El Dorado County location
Bonetti Road runs through a remote forest corridor southeast of Pollock Pines, connecting with Mormon Emigrant Trail. The area includes timberland, forest roads and terrain associated with the Eldorado National Forest.
Placerville NewsWire first reported the initial discovery Oct. 1, based on information provided concerning the incident. Its report placed the discovery just beyond the four-mile marker on Bonetti Road and noted that private timber workers first encountered smoke, the fire and a deceased person at approximately 7:06 a.m.
The location is also part of a landscape still shaped by the 2021 Caldor Fire. Bonetti Road and surrounding forestland have been the subject of post-fire vegetation and hazardous-tree management work.
That history is relevant to the setting but does not establish any connection between the 2021 fire, last week’s fire or the woman’s death.
Sheriff’s Office leads investigation
The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office is leading the death investigation, with fire agencies assisting as needed.
Investigators still must answer several basic questions:
- Who was the woman?
- How did she die?
- When did she die?
- What caused the Bonetti Road fire?
- Was the woman already deceased when the fire began?
- Was the fire somehow connected to her death?
None of those questions has been publicly resolved.
Authorities have not announced that the death is a homicide, suicide or accidental death, and there is no verified information establishing criminal activity.
