Man Arrested After Wife’s Body Is Found in Car in Covina

A 34-year-old Riverside County man was booked on suspicion of murder Friday after he allegedly killed his wife, stuffed her body in the back of a car and drove to his mother’s home in Covina.

The body of Michelle Lanning, 33, was found around midnight Thursday in the back of a red hatchback that was parked outside her mother-in-law’s house on Greer Avenue, Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Lohman said. Her husband, Michael Lanning, was taken into custody and formally arrested Friday afternoon.

Lohman said a family member called police Thursday evening to report that Lanning had said he “harmed Michelle and was going to harm himself.” When Lanning drove up to his mother’s house about 11:30 p.m., she called Covina police, who found the body in the trunk.

There were no obvious signs of trauma, and the cause of death is undetermined, Lohman said. An autopsy is scheduled Monday. The couple, married eight years with no children, owned a pet store in Riverside, he said.