{"id":157541,"date":"2026-01-31T03:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157541\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T03:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:28:09","slug":"austin-beutners-daughter-found-beside-a-highway-in-palmdale-the-night-she-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157541\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Beutner&#8217;s daughter found beside a highway in Palmdale the night she died"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner\u2019s daughter was found by the side of a highway in Palmdale <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-01-21\/la-mayoral-candidate-austin-beutners-daughter-dies-at-22-no-cause-released\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the night she died<\/a>, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department. <\/p>\n<p>A passerby alerted authorities to a woman in a \u201cstate of medical distress\u201d shortly after midnight Jan. 6 near Sierra Highway and Technology Drive, said Lt. Michael Modica of the sheriff\u2019s homicide bureau. <\/p>\n<p>Sheriff\u2019s deputies responded to the scene to assist paramedics, who treated Emily Beutner, 22, at the scene, Modica said. He could not say how long Beutner had been by the road, which is surrounded by empty fields. <\/p>\n<p>She was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff\u2019s homicide detectives have assumed control of the death investigation. Modica said this is typical when a young person is found in such a situation and should not be taken as an indication of the cause of death, which will be determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. <\/p>\n<p>Jeff Millman, a spokesperson for Austin Beutner, declined to comment. <\/p>\n<p>Viridiana Aguilar, a spokesperson for the medical examiner, said earlier this month that her agency had not yet made a determination on the cause of death and had requested additional testing. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDue to the ongoing death investigation, the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner cannot disclose what testing and\/or studies were requested,\u201d Aguilar said. \u201cDeferred cases can take a few months before a cause of death is determined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/me.lacounty.gov\/case-detail\/?caseNumber=2026-00242\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">medical examiner\u2019s website<\/a> indicates that Emily Beutner died at a hospital and does not list a cause or manner of death. <\/p>\n<p>Beutner, a student at Loyola Marymount University, was the youngest of four children and the only daughter. <\/p>\n<p>Her father, a former Los Angeles Unified school superintendent, is among the challengers <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-01-09\/la-mayors-race-takes-shape-palisades-fire-defining-issue\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seeking to unseat Mayor Karen Bass<\/a> in the June 2 primary. Others include TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades fire, and Rae Huang, a community organizer and housing advocate.<\/p>\n<p>Austin Beutner has sharply criticized Bass\u2019 handling of the fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead. His own home was seriously damaged in the fire, forcing him to live elsewhere for the past year, and his mother-in-law\u2019s home was destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of his career, Beutner did a stint as former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa\u2019s \u201cjobs czar.\u201d He also spent roughly a year as publisher and chief executive of The Times.<\/p>\n<p>Beutner has not publicly campaigned since Jan. 5, the day before his daughter\u2019s death. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy family has experienced the unimaginable loss of our beloved daughter. We ask for privacy and your prayers at this time,\u201d Beutner said earlier this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner\u2019s daughter was found by the side of a highway in Palmdale the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[76978,23105,7,9,8,3813,9342,339,1575,1073,63,31121,34919,3906,1869,1839,15551,2637],"class_list":["post-157541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-additional-testing","tag-austin-beutner","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-cause","tag-daughter","tag-death","tag-highway","tag-home","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-medical-examiner","tag-michael-modica","tag-month","tag-night","tag-palisades-fire","tag-palmdale","tag-sheriff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}