Body search called off after 2 days digging

Authorities called off a search for potential murder victims Friday after two days of excavations in Earth People’s Park failed to yield any human remains.

Del Norte County Sheriff Office Cmdr. Bill Steven called the lack of evidence “very perplexing” given the fact that a cadaver dog known for its accuracy indicated that it had found something buried in the ground at the transient encampment off Little Bald Hills Trail earlier in the week.

“We dug and dug and dug some more,” Steven said. “In some cases we went down six or seven feet.”

The investigation will continue, he added, because officials still need to look into a possible murder that the woman who said she knew of the grave sites claims to have witnessed at the park four years ago.

“We’re not going to drop things completely because we didn’t locate anything,” Steven said.

On June 26, a woman first told authorities that she saw a man shoot another man in the face while she was living at Earth People’s Park several years ago. She said she was told about several burial sites that might have contained the bodies of more victims.

When investigators obtained a search warrant for Earth People’s Park, which is a piece of private property in the middle of U.S. Forest Service and Redwood National and State Park lands, she showed them several sites where people might have been buried.

A cadaver dog taken to those locations Monday and Tuesday alerted on the sites and caused the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office to call in the California Department of Justice to assist in excavating the ground.

Work crews began digging slowly on Thursday in an effort to preserve any evidence that might be found. But Steven said when that wasn’t producing results by Friday, they sped up the process.

“It was a significant use of resources,” he said. “But we’re put in a position of having to check on that stuff.”

Little Bald Hills Trail will be opened this weekend, and Steven said the private property owner of Earth People’s Park, who does not live in the area, has requested officials to enforce no trespassing guidelines.