Chris's Crime Forum

Californian police are expected to decide within weeks whether to begin digging at the former hideout of convicted murderer Charles Manson in a hunt for possible human remains, sheriffs said.

Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutz said officers were examining information provided by investigators who probed terrain surrounding Barker Ranch in Death Valley national park, roughly 321 kilometres north-east of Los Angeles.

Preliminary reports suggested the presence of human remains at the site, where Manson and several of his "family" were arrested in 1969 before later being convicted on multiple murder counts.

"Our investigators are reviewing the reports now so we can make a determination of what we are going to do," Sheriff Lutz said, adding that a decision would be made within a month.

"You kind of have to piece all this together and come up with your own ideas about whether there is enough to go out and start digging," added Sheriff Lutz, cautioning that disturbed ground "could have been caused by several things."

Manson, 73, is among the most notorious inmates in the United States. He and four of his followers were convicted of seven counts of murder following a crime spree in Los Angeles County that included the killing of five people in the home of actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant at the time of her murder.

The Manson family have been rumoured to have claimed other victims at the Barker Ranch, however, according to reports and investigators.

Sergeant Paul Dostie of Mammoth Lakes Police has led off-duty efforts to locate possible graves at the site after becoming interested in the case a decade ago, visiting Barker ranch around 13 times over the past year.

Sergeant Dostie's pet labrador retriever, which has been specially trained to detect very old grave sites, has identified several possible sites at the ranch, the police officer said.

"It's been a volunteer effort, it's been something I've been interested in for a long time," Sergeant Dostie said.

"I've got a tremendous amount of information that would seem to indicate that some people could have been murdered at the Barker Ranch."

Sergeant Dostie said one of the sites his dog had alerted investigators to meshed with anecdotal evidence of more murders.

"We have one story that Charles Manson and Tex Watson took this girl who wasn't fitting in with the group up to land behind the ranch and came back an hour later without her," Sergeant Dostie said.

"That was the first area that my dog alerted to. It fits with that story."
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More tests at Manson ranch for buried bodies

(CNN) -- Authorities will continue to test soil at a California ranch that was once home to cult leader Charles Manson, looking for more evidence of buried bodies before any excavations begin, the county sheriff announced Friday.

Earlier this month, search crews found indications that human remains might lie within a few yards of Barker Ranch, the onetime hideout of the "Manson family."

The sites were first identified by trained dogs. Testing equipment from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory also indicated the presence of remains, Sgt. Paul Dostie of the Mammoth Lakes, California, Police Department told CNN.

But Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze said Friday that after analyzing information from the sites, he decided further testing was necessary.

"Myers Ranch is private property, Barker Ranch is national park property," Lutze said in a written statement. "Both are compelling reasons to be as cautious as possible and use every reasonable testing method available before disturbing the ground with excavation."

Myers Ranch, adjoining Barker Ranch, was owned by a relative of a Manson family member and also served as a hideout.

Methods of testing the soil "with minimal intrusion" are available, the sheriff's office said, and will be able to determine "with a high degree of reliability" whether bodies are buried there.

"Forensic teams will focus on a very few spots in which search dogs recently indicated possible findings of dead bodies with some consistency," the sheriff's statement said. "The various dogs gave inconsistent findings at many spots on the ranch property and all dogs were not controlled in the same manner accepted by recognized dog search organizations."

The testing will be closed to the news media, Lutze said, to protect the integrity of the process and the property rights of the owner. Testing results will be released, however, probably in late April, the statement said.


After Sgt. Dostie's dog and another dog, from NecroSearch, a nonprofit organization that specializes in finding clandestine graves, indicated the possible presence of human remains, testing equipment from Tennessee's Oak Ridge laboratory indicated two likely grave sites and a third possible grave site, Dostie told CNN.

Manson and four other "family" members were convicted of murder and other charges in connection with a two-night spree in August 1969 that included the slaying of actress Sharon Tate. The slayings -- and Manson and his family members -- transfixed the nation. E-mail to a friend

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Behind the Scenes: Body hunt at Manson ranch
In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. CNN's Ted Rowlands takes viewers inside the Barker Ranch, tonight on "Anderson Cooper 360°," at 10 p.m. ET

DEATH VALLEY, California (CNN) -- The Charles Manson murder spree of 1969 ended in a remote Death Valley, California, cabin called Barker Ranch. It's where Manson and members of his cult "family" hid after the seven murders, dubbed the "Helter Skelter" killings that terrified the country.

Now, thanks to a small-town detective and his cadaver dog, Manson's hideout might be searched for more murder victims.

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.

A few weeks ago, a CNN crew went with Dostie, Buster and gold prospector Emmett Harder to Barker Ranch. Harder knew Manson and his top lieutenant, Charles "Tex" Watson, and spent time with the Manson family in 1969. Harder says at that time he had no idea some of Manson's group of more than 30 men, women and children had just gone on a killing spree. Watch a report from the ranch »

Getting to the Barker Ranch requires a four-wheel drive to manage the steep, rocky terrain of the Golar Wash -- a narrow passage separating the High Desert Mountains from the arid desert valley below. As we bounced around on the drive in, it was hard to imagine how Manson and his cult got a school bus up the same road 40 years ago. See photos inside the Manson compound »

We finally arrived at the Barker Ranch about an hour after leaving the ghost town of Ballarat.

Before Buster, the dog, went to work -- we went into the old cabin which was virtually unchanged since Manson and his crew was arrested here.

Dostie shows us the bathroom where Manson was hiding at the time of his arrest -- crammed in a tiny cabinet.

"His hair was sticking out," Dostie said, as he explained how Manson was found while an officer was using the bathroom.

Emmett Harder, the gold prospector, showed us the old kitchen where he and the Manson girls ate pancakes.

"We rolled them up and dipped them in syrup," said Harder, who hired Watson and Manson to do some work -- even thought he says he didn't trust them around his gold mine.

"Find Fred," Dostie shouts, a command used to send Buster looking for remains.

One by one, with our camera rolling, the 4-year-old black lab goes to five separate areas, which Dostie believes are the site of old graves.

"I don't know who's buried here, but I think there are bodies," Dostie says as he praises his dog.

"I think there were more," says Harder, recalling a story one of the Manson girls once told him.
This one girl didn't get along with Manson or Watson at all," Harder recalls. "And they took her for a walk, and they came back in a short distance, and we never saw her again," he says, raising an eyebrow under his cowboy hat.

CNN sent letters to Manson and "Tex" Watson, asking if there were victims buried behind Barker Ranch.

Manson never replied, but Watson did.

In a letter, he told CNN: "I was the first family member to go to the desert after the murders and also the first to leave. I say this only to let you know that no one was killed while I was in the desert. But I don't know what took place after I left. I don't think there were any more killed, I hope not! I have absolutely nothing to hide." See the letters sent to CNN »

Police say they don't know of anyone associated with Manson who was reported missing after his arrest.

Barker Ranch is located on federal land but the decision to whether to do a follow-up dig is up to the Inyo County Sheriff's Department, which wanted do more testing -- including sonar readings -- before spending the time and money to excavate.

After reviewing soil samples uncovered by Dostie, a team of Oak Ridge scientists recently traveled to the ranch for further testing. They found enough evidence to excavate -- evidence of possible remains at three of the same places where his cadaver dog alerted, Dostie says.

"It seems very viable," he says. "I would say we have a tremendous amount of probable cause to look."

Even if bodies are found, there is no guarantee they would ever be identified, and even if the bodies were identified, prosecuting Manson or any of his followers for murder would be virtually impossible
"Really that's not what we're interested in," Dostie says. "Many of these Manson family members are on one-year parole reviews, and there's a lot of movement out there to try to get them out."

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.


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Manson ranch dig turns up only animal bones

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, California (AP) -- Investigators and scientists went to Charles Manson's last hideout to hunt for clandestine graves that could contain other possible victims. The closest thing they found were animal bones.

The dig for human remains ended Wednesday after four sites yielded no bodies, leaving scientists puzzled over the clues that enticed them to go this far.

The excavation had been scheduled to last three days, ending Thursday. But the work went faster than scheduled, with the crew of 20 digging until dusk, then camping out at night beside the ranch house Manson and his followers had used.

"There have been no human remains found," Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze said. "We're finishing up this site and that'll be it for the day -- nothing."

Manson and his followers hid out at Barker Ranch after their 1969 killing spree in Los Angeles. For years, rumors have swirled about other possible Manson victims, including hitchhikers and runaways who visited the site and were never heard from again.

The clan was ultimately prosecuted for nine murders; Manson is serving a life prison sentence.

Lutze said investigators were glad they didn't find evidence of any additional victims.

"If we came up with nothing, that's great because (it means) there's nobody out here buried," he said.

Scientists who conducted a preliminary probe of the rugged, remote site in February said they identified several spots that could be graves, leading the sheriff to conduct the exploratory excavation.

By Wednesday afternoon, the four sites deemed most likely to hold human remains had been dug up and the dirt sifted. With the work done, the teams packed up and went home for good.

The search revealed little more than a .38-caliber shell casing -- found on the surface on the first day and promptly dismissed by law enforcement personnel as being recent -- and a pack rat's underground nest.

One site revealed fragments of animal bones, an ash pit and some stones used to make arrowheads. Rangers determined it was of archaeological interest, so digging stopped and the site was turned over to the National Park Service.

The rugged terrain, accessible only by four-wheel-drive vehicles, and triple-digit temperatures, made the work hard for those involved. The nature of the soil -- dry and chocked with rocks -- made it difficult to operate some of the new forensic tools being put to work on the project, some for the first time on a case outside the laboratory, researchers said.

"The story here is not what was found or what was not found but how we looked," forensic consultant Charles Illsley said. "I can tell you based on my experience that this has been one of the most exhaustive applications for a number of combined technologies."

The researchers said the physical environment made it harder to determine what was underground. Plants that exude unusual chemicals and rocks with magnetic properties were throwing off their equipment, they said.

"I haven't been this frustrated in a very long time," said Arpad Vass, a senior researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Vass said the excavation was a learning process.

"We're trying to improve the science. It's in its infancy," he said. "There could be additional people out there. But unless there are leaps in this kind of science, we'll never know."

In Ballarat, an abandoned mining town near the mouth of the canyon that leads to the ranch, Rock Novak, the town's only resident, held out the last of a series of Manson T-shirts he had made.

Few people come through the area: off-road enthusiasts, the occasional movie crew looking for a dramatic landscape, Manson fanatics. Even after the out-of-town crew leaves, Novak expects a trickle of visitors to the cult's abandoned home.

"Everybody loves a mystery," he said.

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Terminally ill killer could get ‘compassionate release’ to die outside prison
CORONA, Calif. - Former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, convicted in the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate, could soon be released from prison because she is near death, authorities said.

Atkins, 59, is terminally ill and being considered for so-called "compassionate release," state corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. She gave no details of Atkins' illness but said a doctor had determined she had less than six months to live.

The corrections department was reviewing the request, which if approved would then be passed to the state Board of Parole, which has the power to release prisoners under state law so they can die with loved ones, at their expense.

Such releases are relatively rare — only 10 of the 60 requests made last year were granted, Thornton said. The prisoners must have family members willing and able to care for them.

Atkins, now a gray-haired, matronly-looking woman, was one of cult leader Manson's ersatz hippie "family" of young killers who burst into a Beverly Hills home 39 years ago and killed Tate, the pregnant wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski, along with four others. The following night they stabbed to death a wealthy couple in their Los Angeles home.

Atkins has been denied parole 11 times, most recently in 2005.

She was housed in the California Institution for Women in Corona for 37 years but has been in a nearby hospital since March
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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- California's director of adult prisons is recommending against "compassionate release" for a terminally ill former Manson family member, a spokeswoman said.

Suzan Hubbard, director of the Division of Adult Institutions, decided that Susan Atkins' request should not be sent to the sentencing court for consideration, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Hubbard's recommendation is advisory and will not necessarily prevent Atkins' release.

The court -- not the department or the state Board of Parole Hearings -- has the final say on whether Atkins should be released, Thornton said. "They're the only ones legally who can recall the sentence," she added.

Atkins, 60, was convicted in the 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and four others. She had been incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California, but has been hospitalized since mid-March.

Her request is now before the Board of Parole Hearings, which is conducting an independent investigation and will hear the case during its monthly public meeting, Thornton said. The next meeting is scheduled July 15.

Atkins had been held for years at the Corona prison, which earlier determined that she met the criteria for compassionate release under the law, and sent her request to the corrections department.

The Board of Parole Hearings will receive public comment, discuss the request in closed session and then announce its recommendation. The board also can decide whether to refer the request to the sentencing court.

The court, based in Los Angeles, can either grant or deny Atkins' request. It also can recall her life sentence and resentence Atkins to a lesser term, allowing for her to be paroled.

In 2007, the department received 60 compassionate release requests, Thornton said. Ten were approved.

Citing privacy rules, prison officials would not disclose the nature of Atkins' illness. Her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, has been quoted as saying she has terminal brain cancer, according to a blog called Manson Family Today. She also has had a leg amputated, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

Atkins, known within the Manson family as "Sadie Mae Glutz," has been in prison since 1971 and has been denied parole 11 times. She is California's longest-serving female inmate.

Tate and three houseguests were slain in August 1969 by killers who burst into her Benedict Canyon home. A teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his cottage on the property also was killed.

According to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins stabbed Tate, who was 8½ months pregnant, and wrote the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski.

The following night, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were slain in their home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The two-day crime spree sent shock waves throughout Los Angeles.

All of the killers remain behind bars. Atkins also was convicted in the earlier murder of music teacher Gary Hinman.

Atkins, like family leader Charles Manson, received a death sentence. Her punishment was changed to life in prison when the California Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty unconstitutional in 1972.

Atkins is a born-again Christian, according to a Web site maintained by her husband. During her incarceration, the site says, Atkins has worked to help at-risk youth, victims of violent crimes and homeless children.

Last month, authorities dug for buried bodies at the Inyo County, California, ranch where Manson and his followers once lived, after police became aware that testing had indicated humans might be buried there. Nothing was found, police said.

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Susan Atkins, follower of Charles Manson, dies
61-year-old, who admitted killing Sharon Tate in '69, was fighting cancer.
LOS ANGELES - Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson whose remorseless witness stand confession to killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 shocked the world, has died. She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer.

Atkins' death comes less than a month after a parole board turned down the terminally ill woman's last chance at freedom on Sept. 2. She was brought to the hearing on a gurney and slept through most of it.

California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said that Atkins died late Thursday night. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, had a leg amputated and was given only a few months to live. She underwent brain surgery, and in her last months was paralyzed and had difficulty speaking. But she managed to speak briefly at the Sept. 2 hearing, reciting religious verse with the help of her husband, attorney James Whitehouse.

She had been transferred to a skilled nursing facility at the California Central Women's Facility at Chowchilla exactly one year before she died.

Tate, the 26-year-old actress who appeared in the movie "Valley of the Dolls" and was the wife of famed director Roman Polanski, was one of seven murdered in two Los Angeles homes during the Manson cult's bloody rampage in August 1969.

Others followers remain in prison
Atkins was the first of the convicted killers to die. Manson and three others involved in the murders — Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles "Tex" Watson — remain imprisoned under life sentences. Thornton said that at the time of Atkins death she had been in prison longer than any woman currently incarcerated in California.

Atkins, who confessed from the witness stand during her trial, had apologized for her acts numerous times over the years. But 40 years after the murders, she learned that few had forgotten or forgiven what she and other members of the cult had done.

Debra Tate, the slain actress's younger sister, told the parole commissioners Sept. 2 that she "will pray for (Atkins') soul when she draws her last breath, but until then I think she should remain in this controlled situation." Debra Tate noted that she would have a 40-year-old nephew if her sister had lived. Atkins' prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, had spoken out earlier in favor of release, saying the mercy requested was "minuscule" because Atkins was on her deathbed.

Atkins and her co-defendants were originally sentenced to death but their sentences were reduced to life in prison when capital punishment was briefly outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s.

During the sensational 10-month trial, Atkins, Manson and co-defendants Krenwinkel and Van Houten maintained their innocence. But once they were convicted, the so-called "Manson girls" confessed in graphic detail.
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