Proprietor of automobile buried at Bay Space mansion collected $87,000 insurance coverage fee

Days after a automobile was discovered buried within the yard of a San Francisco Bay Space mansion, authorities are nonetheless looking for human stays as questions concerning the house’s former proprietor. house and his violent previous is rising.

On Monday, San Mateo County Dist. Atty. Steve Wagstaffe advised Mercury Information that Johnny Bocktune Lew, who died in 2015, reported his Mercedes-Benz stolen in 1992 and picked up $87,000 in insurance coverage on the automobile.

The district lawyer described the case as having components of a real crime novel, however missing elements.

“This e book has 15 chapters in it and we solely have two,” Wagstaffe advised Mercury Information. “I do not know if we’ll ever get the opposite chapters, however I undoubtedly hope we do as a result of it is an fascinating story.”

The Instances couldn’t be reached by Wagstaffe for touch upon Monday.

In line with US census knowledge, divers discovered the car on Thursday, buried within the yard of a $15 million mansion in Atherton, a small city of about 7,000 folks. have a mean earnings of over $250,000.

The car was found 4 to 5 ft deep within the floor behind a home within the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue, based on the Atherton Police Division, based on the Atherton Police Division. Unused concrete baggage had been discovered inside.

Police mentioned Cadaver canine had been introduced in to scour the scene and had been “mildly knowledgeable of the opportunity of human stays”. However to date no stays have been discovered.

Including to the questions surrounding the automobile are soiled particulars from Lew’s previous.

Neighbors advised Mercury Information that Lew, who offered the property in 2014, had a historical past of violence. Court docket paperwork reveal he was discovered responsible of second-degree homicide in Sixties Los Angeles within the deadly capturing of his ex-girlfriend, Karen Gervasi. The California Supreme Court docket overturned the conviction in 1968.

He was later convicted of two counts of tried homicide within the Nineteen Seventies, however particulars of that case should not obtainable.

Within the Nineties, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Lew was arrested once more, this time for insurance coverage fraud after he tried to rent somebody – who later grew to become an spy – to sink the yacht. his two $1.2 million engines off the Golden Gate. , claiming it belonged to an Asian mob.

In Atherton, authorities spent days exhuming the Mercedes earlier than towing it to the San Mateo County Crime Lab on Saturday for evaluation, police mentioned.

“On Sunday … ground-penetrating radar was used to look at the scene,” police mentioned. “This post-mortem didn’t reveal something uncommon or suspicious on the scene and no human stays had been discovered. This ended our subject investigation.”

Wagstaffe advised Mercury Information that the dearth of our bodies doesn’t imply no crimes have been dedicated.

“For all I do know, he most likely killed somebody and dumped the physique,” he mentioned. “However why do not you drive someplace else then? It is unusual.”

“Many dismembered canine have indicated that there could also be human stays on the web site,” Wagstaffe advised the newspaper, including that he was trying ahead to seeing if the forensic examination of the Mercedes carried it. any DNA or different proof.

In the end, insurance coverage fraud wouldn’t clarify why the car was buried or why the cadaver canine continued to point the presence of human stays over the weekend, he mentioned.