Days after a automotive was discovered buried within the yard of a San Francisco Bay Space mansion, authorities are persevering with to seek for human stays as questions mount concerning the property’s former proprietor and his violent previous.
On Monday, San Mateo County Dist. Atty. Steve Wagstaffe instructed the Mercury Information that Johnny Bocktune Lew, who died in 2015, reported the Mercedes-Benz stolen in 1992 and picked up $87,000 in insurance coverage on the automobile.
The district lawyer described the case as having the weather of a real crime novel, however with lacking elements.
“This e book has 15 chapters in it and we’ve solely obtained two chapters,” Wagstaffe instructed the Mercury Information. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to get the opposite chapters, however I positive hope we do as a result of it's an fascinating story.”
The Occasions couldn't attain Wagstaffe for touch upon Monday.
Landscapers discovered the automotive on Thursday, buried within the yard of a $15-million mansion in Atherton, a small city of about 7,000 folks with a median earnings above $250,000, based on U.S. census information.
The automotive was found 4 to five ft deep within the floor behind the house within the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue, based on the Atherton Police Division. Unused baggage of concrete have been discovered inside.
Cadaver canine have been introduced in to scour the scene and “made a slight notification of doable human stays,” police mentioned. However thus far no stays have been discovered.
Including to the questions across the automotive are sordid particulars from Lew’s previous.
Neighbors instructed the Mercury Information that Lew, who offered the property in 2014, had a historical past of violence. Court docket paperwork revealed he was convicted of second-degree homicide within the Sixties in Los Angeles within the deadly capturing of his ex-girlfriend, Karen Gervasi. The California Supreme Court docket reversed the conviction in 1968.
He was later convicted on two counts of tried homicide within the Nineteen Seventies, however particulars in that case weren't available.
Within the Nineties, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Lew was arrested once more, this time for insurance coverage fraud after he tried to rent folks — who later turned out to be undercover brokers — to sink his $1.2-million twin-engine yacht off the Golden Gate, claiming it belonged to an Asian crime mob.
In Atherton, authorities spent a number of days excavating the Mercedes earlier than towing it to the San Mateo County Crime Lab on Saturday for evaluation, police mentioned.
“On Sunday ... ground-penetrating radar was used to look at the scene,” police mentioned. “This examination didn't reveal something uncommon or suspicious on the scene and no human stays have been situated. This concluded our on-scene investigation.”
Wagstaffe instructed the Mercury Information that the shortage of a physique doesn’t imply no crime was dedicated.
“For all I do know, he might need killed any individual and disposed of the physique,” he mentioned. “However why wouldn’t you then do away with the automotive some place else? It’s unusual.”
A number of cadaver canine have indicated for doable human stays on the website, Wagstaffe instructed the newspaper, including that he regarded ahead to seeing whether or not a forensic examination of the Mercedes yields any DNA or different proof.
Finally, insurance coverage fraud wouldn’t clarify why the automotive was buried or why the cadaver canine continued to point for the presence of human stays over the weekend, he mentioned.
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