FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED

Naked Body Found Stuffed Inside Barrel by Malibu Lifeguard Identified

The cause and manner of the 32-year-old man’s death remains under investigation.

The man found dead inside a sealed barrel on Monday at Malibu Lagoon State Beach has been identified as a 32-year-old man named Javonnta Murphy by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. Murphy was an aspiring musician who grew up in South Los Angeles, the LA Times reported Wednesday. “He was a good kid, good person. He didn’t gang-bang. What happened to him, I just don’t understand,” said Patrick Nelson, who dated Murphy’s mother and considered himself a stepdad to the late rapper. The cause and manner of Murphy’s death remains under investigation. Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that since the 55-gallon barrel was sealed and Murphy was found naked, the death was likely the result of foul play. The barrel was opened on Monday morning by a Malibu lifeguard, who had spotted it bobbing in the lagoon and swam out to retrieve it, according to a spokesperson for the homicide bureau of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.