5-9-08

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Indiana News
6 Tv News

What Dark Secrets Does Manson Ranch Hold?

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/16217840/detail.html

4-Day Search For Additional Bodies To Begin May 20

POSTED: 6:03 pm EDT May 9, 2008

FRESNO, Calif. -- The sheriff of the remote region
where Charles Manson hid after a killing spree in the
summer of 1969 said Friday that he will allow
researchers to begin digging into the sandy soil in
search of possible human remains.

In February, a team of forensic researchers from
Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory visited the
Death Valley ranch where Manson took refuge and found
at least two sites that could be clandestine graves
holding the bodies of additional victims.

Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze said he will allow a
limited four-day excavation at Barker Ranch beginning
May 20 because forensic tests of the soil had produced
mixed results.

"There was no consistent response from the dogs that
searched, and no conclusive findings from the soil
samplings tested by top experts in the field," Lutze
said in a statement. "The only way to determine once
and for all whether there are bodies buried at Barker
Ranch from the time of the Manson family is to proceed
with limited excavation."

National Park Service officials said Thursday that the
ranch, which lies within the boundaries of Death
Valley National Park in the rugged Panamint Mountain
range, would be closed for as long as four days "to
protect the integrity of the investigative process."

The ranch was briefly closed in April, but a decision
to dig was put off because a piece of high-tech
soil-testing equipment was damaged en route to the
site. Authorities said they wanted to conduct tests
using lasers before disturbing the soil.

Scientists completed four kinds of tests at five
locations on the ranch and found some corroboration of
a "possible find of human remains" at some of the
sites, Lutze said.

Manson and his followers hid out in the decrepit ranch
after a series of gruesome murders that set Los
Angeles on edge in 1969. They were arrested there in a
raid.

Manson is serving a life sentence at Corcoran State
Prison for the murders of seven people, including
actress Sharon Tate.
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