Man found dead near school may have committed suicide, police say

The death of an unidentified person whose body was discovered tied to a tree near Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City might have been a suicide, a Los Angeles police spokeswoman said Saturday.

Police were called to the 3700 block of Coldwater Canyon Avenue near the private high school campus around 8:20 a.m. Friday, LAPD Officer Rosario Herrera said.

An L.A. County coroner’s official previously said the body belonged to a man who appeared to be around 30 years old. The cause of death is under investigation. No further information was immediately available, Herrera said.

The school's student-run online newspaper, the Harvard-Westlake Chronicle, reported that the body was discovered by the school's head of security as he was clearing away brush in the area.

“According to my experience working homicide, it looked like he had been there a couple of days,” Jim Crawford, a former police officer, told the Chronicle.

The newspaper quoted another campus official saying that the person did not appear to be a member of the school community.

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