The body of Elizabeth Short was found on January 15, 1947, on vacant land located midway between Coliseum and 39 Street on the west side of Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. The body was discovered by local resident Betty Bersinger, who was walking with her three-year-old daughter. Her severely mutilated body had been severed at the waist and drained of blood and her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears. The body had been washed and cleaned and she had been "posed" with her hands over her head and elbows bent at right angles.
