Ventura County Sheriff investigating body found in Fillmore

FILLMORE, Calif. -- Ventura County Sheriff's responded to a body found in Fillmore on Friday afternoon.

Ventura County Sheriff's reports that a body was found on the 1500 block of West Telegraph in Fillmore.

At 11:45 a.m. the Ventura County Sheriffs Department received a call about a body that was found in an orchard field off highway 126 near Fillmore.

“We are not releasing gender right now,” said Marta Bugarin, who is the Public Information Officer with Ventura County Sheriff's Department. “We are going to let that come out of the medical examiners office. But they were basically making the rounds over here. It was a real estate agent showing the property and came across the body.”

Authorities said there was no signs of foul play. Meanwhile family members of missing women Bertha De Lara were at the scene waiting for confirmation about the identity of the body.

“Obviously our hearts go out to the family,” said Bugarin. “We have been working closely with them. This is obviously worse case if in fact it is her. We have been working with the family the entire week and so our hearts go out to the family. I know this is a hard time and they are grieving.”

The body was found a few miles away from the area where De Lara was last seen.

“We searched the entire area, but it wasn’t densely searched,” said Bugarin. “We have been in here, but the way that the body is situated it is actually pretty hard to see. There is tall grass so it is definitely not visible walking by or off the trail. It is just not easily visible.”

De Lara had been missing since Saturday night. The 73-year-old had dementia and was last seen on a neighbors surveillance camera walking near Sespe Avenue and C Street Saturday night. According to the Sheriffs Department all search efforts for De Lara have now ended.