Firefighters responding to a house fire on December 21, 2023, found the body of a 27-year-old elementary school teacher from Palmdale, California in the trunk of a burnt-out car.
The fire occurred at a residence on 38th Street West in Quartz Hill, a suburb of Los Angeles.
According to sources, firefighters were summoned to the scene shortly after 8 a.m. and quickly extinguished the fire. During their operation, they discovered the teacher’s body inside the trunk of a car parked in the garage, which had been engulfed in flames.
Neighbors reported hearing a woman screaming and a sound resembling an explosion before the fire broke out.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has launched an arson and homicide investigation into the case but has yet to release the victim’s name.
The house where the incident occurred is listed under the name of Matthew Switalski, a 37-year-old cost controller at Northrop Grumman, an aerospace company. Switalski is said to have been in a romantic relationship with the victim. The home was being occupied by renters at the time of the fire.
A man, claiming to be the uncle of the deceased, described his niece as a kind-hearted and quiet woman. He revealed that the school had contacted the family when she did not show up for work, which raised concerns about her well-being. He also mentioned that his niece had been in a relationship with a man for about a year, but he did not have much information about him.
Police are trying to locate the homeowner, who has not yet been in contact with them and has been identified as a person of interest. The circumstances surrounding the fire and the death of the teacher remain unclear.
