More Manson Murders?

Most of us have heard of Charles Manson and the murders he and his followers carried out decades ago, but how many people know there may be more murder victims buried at his old hide out, the Barker Ranch.

Recent discoveries by a police officer and his dog (cadaver dog I believe), lead some to believe there are 3-5 bodies buried in the area surrounding the ranch.

More Manson Murders?

About a year ago, Sgt. Paul Dostie of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department decided to test his dog, Buster, at the Barker Ranch. He heard rumors that Manson and his followers had killed more people and buried them behind their hideout.

After several visits, Buster, who was trained to find human remains, found five possible graves, Dostie says.

There was no mention of any missing persons associated with the Manson family around that time, so Police are not sure if they are going to pursue the search and start digging.

The reasoning is ... if they find any bodies, it will not increase the jail time currently being served by Manson or his followers, who committed the 7 murders back in the late 60's.

To charge them with new crimes would be very hard to prove based on the likely-hood of lack of evidence after all these years.

What could come out of finding bodies buried around the ranch may be trump cards to be played at every parole hearing for the murderous crew.

But again, the local Police are thinking this may be unwarranted.

IMO, if they believe there are bodies buried in the locations as directed by the dog, then they should dig.

A decision on a dig is expected this week. Without a search, we may never know whether Buster the dog was just barking, or whether his barks unlocked a Manson family secret.

If nothing else, at least they may be able to identify the bodies and give some family or friends some closure as to what happened to their loved one.

It really kind of amazes me that they are actually contemplated whether or not to pursue this matter any further.

Edit to add: I put this in Current Events even though the crimes occurred long ago, but because the decision to dig is happening now.

Crimes Forum would be nice...




[edit on 9-5-2008 by Grailkeeper]

Well, even if the powers that be are reluctant to award the right to dignity in death to any potential victims that may remain, there are surely kin that would find some solace in having the mystery of their loved one's disappearance put to rest. There is a moral obligation to search for the bodies if there is even a hint they are there.

Further to the Manson issue, though...what really creeps me out is a statement Charlie made at one point, something to the effect of "There's folks out there in the desert that make us look like Boy Scouts"

The mind boggles....

From what I have read they suspect if there ARE any more bodies at the ranch they are probably bodies of family members that had a falling out with the rest of the group and "left". Of course the families still diserve closure, but its not as if they were kidnapping innocent strangers and then burying them at the ranch.

The keyword there is 'Suspect' the bodies would be that of family members.

Not knowing beyond a reasonable doubt should still prompt an immediate search of the area.

I think even if they knew for sure it was 'family' members, there should still be a search.