No Visible Remains Found In Search For Hoffa's Body
ROSEVILLE (WWJ/AP) - Police say no visible human remains have been found in a dig Friday morning in a Roseville driveway.
WWJ Newsradio 950's Mike Campbell said the crowd of curious onlookers and media members made for a "block party atmosphere" as soil samples were taken based on a man's claim he saw a body buried there 35 years ago -- the day after Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa went missing.
Roseville Police Chief James Berlin said, at least so far, the search is a bust.
"Kind of like you, I watch TV too and, you know, on TV they always get that evidence, cool, just like that. So, yeah, we were kinda hoping that when we brought something up there would be something very evident there ... that's not the case," Berlin told reporters gathered outside the home on Florida Street, near 12 Mile and Gratiot.
"It's my understanding that the remains depend on environmental conditions, the decomposition of the body of what would actually be left after all this time after all these years. So, that's why the anthropologist has to come in and tell us, you know, what's what," Berlin said.
The state Department of Environmental Equality on Friday dug six feet down, pulling out two tubes of dirt and clay.
The soil samples will be sent to a forensic anthropologist at Michigan State University and tested for human decomposition. Results are not expected until Monday.
The samples were ordered after ground-penetrating radar last week detected an anomaly, or shift, in the soil beneath the driveway.
Roseville resident Patricia Szpunar told The Associated Press that the lot where she's lived in for 24 years has been turned into a "three-ring circus" by curious gawkers, photo-takers and reporters -- making her a prisoner in her own home.
Szpunar said she wants to be left alone. When asked if she thinks Friday's search will end her misery, she said: "Get real."
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. The FBI refused to comment on the dig.
Hoffa was last seen July 30, 1975, outside a restaurant in Oakland County. Previous searches for his remains have been conducted at a Milford horse farm and beneath a swimming pool. According to inside sources, the government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the decades-long hunt for Hoffa. Read more, here.
MORE: Feds Spend Hundreds Of Thousands On Hoffa Search
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