LOS ANGELES – It’s the perfect secluded hiking spot for those in the know, celebrities trying to keep clear of the paparazzi and others seeking a close-up view of the “Hollywood” sign or sweeping panoramas of downtown.

This week, someone apparently thought Bronson Canyon, a twisting, tiny warren of narrow streets just a mile up a hill from the studio where the TV show “Wizards of Waverly Place” was filmed, could also be the perfect place to hide a dismembered body.

A head. Feet. And hands.

Whoever it was that left the gruesome scene may be long gone now.

That’s one mystery, in a town that thrives on them and often rings up millions of dollars making up tales filled with gory scenes just like the one discovered Tuesday.

The other, more pressing mystery: Who do the body parts belong to?

So far, police believe the unidentified man is between 40 and 60 years old.

They also believe the body, found by a dog walker who let one of her animals off the leash, had been there only a short time. Just a few days at the most.

They note that the coyotes that roam rugged Bronson Canyon Park in packs at night — their howls are the only sounds people hear after dusk — would have destroyed the remains if they had been there longer than a few days.

“If it had not been for the dog walker, we might never have found it,” police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said Thursday at the park.

As 120 officers and firefighters on foot and horseback fought their way through seven acres of brush this week looking for the victim’s torso, some searchers used ropes to rappel into a steep drainage culvert. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, meanwhile, was trying to identify the remains.

Smith said they would try to identify the man through fingerprints first and, if that doesn’t work, search DNA databases and dental records.

Police are still searching for a motive, reviewing hundreds of theories provided by both detectives and local residents.