MECCA (CNS) - Authorities today released the name of a woman whose charred remains were found in Mecca over the summer, near where a sheriff's deputy fatally shot a man armed with an ax. The body of Brandy Kiehl, 38, of Mecca, was found June 3 near the southwest corner of Lincoln Street and Avenue 66, according to the county coroner's office.
Investigators discovered Kiehl's remains more than 12 hours after responding to the area on a report of ``a non-compliant subject armed with an ax,'' according to sheriff's Deputy Robyn Flores. David Ponce, 42, was shot by a deputy around 3:30 a.m. and died at a hospital.
Around 5 p.m., county fire crews returned to the area where the shooting occurred ``to extinguish smoldering debris at the scene of an earlier fire,'' and found the woman's remains among the debris, Flores said.
Kiehl's cause of death remains undetermined and it is unknown what connection, if any, exists between Ponce and Kiehl's death.