Days after a car was discovered buried in the backyard of a San Francisco Bay mansion, the government continues to search for human remains as questions mount about the property’s former owner and his violent past.
Steve Wagstaffe told the Mercury News that Johnny Bocktune Lew, who died in 2015, reported the theft of the Mercedes-Benz in 1992 and charged $87,000 in vehicle insurance.
The district attorney described the case as having the look of a genuine crime novel, but with missing parts.
“This e-book has 15 chapters and we only have two,” Wagstaffe told the Mercury News. “I don’t know if we’ll ever have the other chapters, but I hope we have because it’s an engaging story. “
The Times may simply not succeed in Wagstaffe for Monday’s comment.
Landscapers discovered the car Thursday, buried in the garden of a $15 million mansion in Atherton, a small town of about 7,000 people with an average income stream of more than $250,000, according to U. S. census data. U. S.
The car was discovered four to five feet deep on the floor of the space in the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue, according to the Atherton Police Department. Unused concrete bags were discovered inside.
Cadaver dogs were brought in to roam the scene and “made a light notification of imaginable human remains,” police said. But so far, no remains have been found.
Adding to the questions surrounding the car are the sordid highlights of Lew’s past.
Neighbors told the Mercury News that Lew, who sold the assets in 2014, has a history of violence. Court documents revealed he was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1960s in Los Angeles for the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend, Karen. Gervasi. La California Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1968.
He was later convicted of two counts of attempted murder in the 1970s, but the main points of that case were not available.
In the 1990s, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Lew was arrested again, this time for insurance fraud after attempting to hire other people, who later turned out to be undercover agents, to sink his $1. 2 million twin-engine yacht off the Golden Gate. . , claiming that he belonged to an Asian mafia.
Authorities spent several days in the Mercedes before towing it Saturday to the San Mateo County Crime Lab for analysis, police said.
“On Sunday . . . Ground-penetrating radar was used to read out the scene,” police said. “This examination revealed nothing suspicious at the scene and no human remains have been located. This concluded our investigation at the site. “
Wagstaffe told the Mercury News that the absence of a frame means no crime has been committed.
“As far as I know, he may have killed and disposed of the body,” he said. “But why don’t you get rid of the car somewhere else?It’s strange. “
Several dead dogs pointed to imaginable human remains at the site, Wagstaffe told the newspaper, adding that he was searching ahead to see if a forensic examination of the Mercedes would provide DNA or other evidence.
Ultimately, insurance fraud wouldn’t explain why the car was buried or why cadaver dogs continued to involve the presence of human remains over the weekend, he said.
This story gave the impression in the Los Angeles Times.
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