POMONA, Calif. – Two university students found a badly decomposed body when they peeked inside in a hay trailer while searching for a missing calf, officials said.
"This old hay trailer was open, and thinking that the calf went in there, they went in and discovered the body," said Ron Fremont, associate vice president for university relations at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
The student workers called police after making the grisly discovery Sunday morning, he said.
College officials believe the body is that of a homeless man and foul play is not suspected, Fremont said.
The level of decomposition could make identification difficult, said Larry Dietz of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Department.
Fremont said the trailer was "quite a distance away" from the main campus of the university, which offers several majors in agriculture-related fields.
Homeless people sleeping on campus has never been a problem, he said, calling the discovery "an anomaly."
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox