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Tests in Mich. Hoffa search come back negative

ROSEVILLE, Mich. Police investigating a claim that former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is buried in a suburban Detroit backyard say testing on soil samples shows no traces of human decomposition.

The test results were announced Tuesday. Police have taken down the yellow tape roping off the entrance to the Roseville yard.

Soil samples were removed Friday after officials drilled through the floor of a shed north of Detroit. Roseville police Chief James Berlin has said the ground would be excavated if decomposition were found in the samples.

Hoffa last was seen July 30, 1975, outside a restaurant in Oakland County, more than 30 miles to the west. The day he disappeared, Hoffa was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit mafia captain.

Local mob expert Scott Burnstein, author of "Motor City Mafia," said the area in and around Roseville was a hotbed for mob activity in Hoffa's era -- but he also thinks it's not likely Hoffa's remains were buried.

Many, including Burnstein, believe his body was destroyed.

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