JACUMBA, Calif. -- A man whose body was found Sunday on a rural stretch of highway near the Mexican border had been bound and beaten and his death was being investigated as a possible homicide, according to the sheriff's department.

Two U.S. Border Patrol agents found the body of the male Hispanic, 20-25 years old, wrapped in a blanket from the waist down on the side of Interstate 8, about a mile east of Carrizo Gorge Road, at 7:20 a.m., said Lt. Dennis Brugos.

The arid freeway is a few miles north of the Mexican border at the county's eastern end.

The cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner's office.

San Diego sheriff's homicide and crime lab investigators were working on the case, he said.

Anyone with information about the man was asked to call Homicide Detail at (858) 974-2321 or (858) 565-5200.