UPDATED: Body found in Thousand Oaks ID'd; may be burglary suspect

Staff reports
·2 min read
Authorities believe a woman found dead on Manzanita Lane in Thousand Oaks Tuesday morning was possibly involved with a nearby burglary at a storage facility on Willow Lane.
Authorities believe a woman found dead on Manzanita Lane in Thousand Oaks Tuesday morning was possibly involved with a nearby burglary at a storage facility on Willow Lane.

Major crimes detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office investigated a woman’s body found Tuesday morning in Thousand Oaks, with the death possibly involving a burglary suspect.

Officials were initially called to a burglary at a storage facility shortly after 9 a.m. The facility, SoCal Self Storage, is located in the 2500 block of Willow Lane.

While looking into that incident, a woman’s body was found nearby in the 200 block of Manzanita Lane, officials said. The block is on the south side of Highway 101 off Willow Lane, between Skyline Drive and Hampshire Road.

Thousand Oaks Police Chief Jeremy Paris said authorities believe the woman was one of the perpetrators of the burglary. The sheriff’s agency is contracted to provide police services in Thousand Oaks.

The burglars had allegedly broken into a storage unit and stolen what was inside it, Paris said. No details were available regarding what was taken.

On Tuesday evening, Capt. Ryan Clark said two men and a woman had reportedly fled the burglary scene. One man was arrested and later released pending further investigation. Another was outstanding as of Wednesday morning.

The third suspect is believed to be the woman found dead, Clark said. “We need a little more time to draw the conclusion definitively,” he said.

There was no obvious reason for the death and no obvious sign of trauma, officials said. There did not appear to be any foul play involved.

On Wednesday, the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the woman as Nastaza Schmidt, 34, of Ventura. The cause and manner of death were pending, the agency reported.

Ventura County Fire Department units responded to the scene, which was described in the agency’s log notes as a female passed out on front steps, said Andy VanSciver, an agency spokesman. Firefighters cleared the call relatively quickly as the incident involved a death rather than a situation requiring medical aid, he said.

The incident remained under investigation Wednesday, authorities said.

This story may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Sheriff's detectives investigate body found in Thousand Oaks