A car buried underground decades ago was discovered on the property of a $15 million home in Silicon Valley, leading authorities to look into whether or not there were any human remains inside.
During a landscaping expedition, workers found the car and law enforcement officials were notified.
“Due to the unknown nature of why the vehicle was buried, cadaver dogs were called to the scene,” a press release from the Atherton Police noted. “The cadaver dogs made a slight notification of possible human remains. The San Mateo Crime Lab was contacted and sent technicians to assist with excavating the vehicle.”
Excavation of the vehicle is continuing and “no human remains have been located,” the press released added, which was published on Thursday. A fire district also showed up to help with the excavation, per NBC News. NBC also revealed a video of an excavation process near the car.
The car also included “unused bags of concrete,” and was buried underneath the ground prior to the current owner living there. The release also pointed out that the car was potentially buried sometime during the 1990s.
The 12,000-square-foot home is on a 1.63-acre property and was purchased in 2020 by its current owners. The house was built in 1990 and sold for $7.3 million in 2014.
The mansion has a storied past. The previous owner, who is now deceased, reportedly had several criminal allegations and had even been arrested for murder and insurance fraud, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Johnny Bocktune Lew faced accusations in 1999 of attempting to hire men to sink a $1.2 million yacht to get insurance money, but the people he hired were actually undercover members of law enforcement. The investigators told him they had sunk the boat, when in actuality they had just concealed it, and he paid them $30,000 plus gold watches worth $20,000. He also informed the insurance company that someone had stolen the yacht.
In 1966, Lew was found guilty of murder and went to jail, but the California Supreme Court reversed the ruling in 1968, pointing to evidence that shouldn’t have been included in the trial. In 1977, he was convicted of two attempted murder counts and served time in jail for three years.
A resident of the neighborhood told NBC News “it’s kind of strange. Usually it’s pretty safe, and everyone is kind of doing their own thing.”
“It’s strange and it was very fascinating to see all this happen. I just want to see how this plays out,” another resident said.
