5 months ago
ANTIOCH, CA - As crews remove structures from a yard adjacent to the property of Phillip and Nancy Garrido's Antioch home on Friday, a large gray shed with bars on the windows can be seen. News10 is working to learn if that was Jaycee Dugard's home the past 18 years.
Meantime, searchers have brought in ground-penetrating radar as police look for possible evidence of two girls who were reported missing in the 1980s.
At a Friday morning news conference, authorities said they have yet to find anything conclusive linking the pair to the disappearances of Michaela Garecht in 1988 and Ilene Misheloff in 1989. They also said Dugard, who's now 29, hasn't provided any information that helps solve the other cases.
On Thursday a pair of cadaver dogs indicated the possible presence of human remains on the property. But authorities said more debris needs to be removed before another team of dogs, used to sniff out bones, can get to work.
The archeological dogs will be brought in next week, Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson said at the news conference.
Hayward Police Lt. Chris Orrey said in addition to the ground penetrating radar, crews will be removing more debris, including two concrete slabs and a shed. Crews will also continue their search inside the Garridos' home.
Authorities said this week's search has been exhausting work, and crews will take a break over the weekend and resume on Monday.
Nelson said the team of specially-trained dogs brought in to search the yard Thursday morning gave a "tentative" indication that could mean human remains in the backyard of the Garrido home.
"One of the dogs gave an indication on one of the areas of the Garrido property," Nelson said. Another dog was moved to the same area and also signalled the possibility of something buried in the yard, Nelson said.
It's an open ground area," Orrey said. "We're going to be running the x-ray equipment, probably (Friday), to get a subterranean look at things and we'll eventually be digging there."
SLIDESHOW: See inside the Garrido home
Sharon Murch, the mother of Michaela Garecht, one of the missing girls, was allowed onto the property Thursday. She said is was hard to see the soundproof room and think about what might have gone one there.
She said, "Until someone shows me search positive that my daughter is not alive I'm just going to continue to believe that she is."
Nelson would not say where in the yard the dogs picked up a scent. He also cautioned about false positives, and said the area is known to have Native American or animal remains.
Orrey said removing the concrete from the backyard will help give the dogs and human crews a better opportunity to determine whether there were human remains in the yard.
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Investigators also begin collecting evidence inside the Garrido home Thursday. Orrey said the quick work done by forensic teams surrounding the house made it possible for the inside search to begin ahead of schedule.Photos taken by Contra Costa County building inspectors on Aug. 31 were released, showing the extent of the filth and squalor inside.
Among the more than 100 pictures, images of sinks overflowing with pots and pans, a filthy aquarium overrun with algae, living areas so cluttered with clothes, paper and debris it was impossible to see the floor and the words "faith" and "truth" as well as their definitions taped to a wall above a computer.
The two Antioch properties being searched in the cases of Garecht and Misheloff total only about an acre. But investigators have to go through and clear truckloads of debris and dismantle structures in what is turning out to be a search lasting several days.
SLIDESHOW: See photos of the Garrido property search and crush of media at the scene
Personnel from the Hayward and Dublin police departments, Contra Costa County and Alameda County sheriff's departments, and FBI are looking for anything that might tie Garrido into the 1988 abduction of Garecht in Hayward or the 1989 disappearance of Misheloff from Dublin.
Authorities said they obtained search warrants after seeing several similarities between the disappearances of Garecht and Misheloff and that of Jaycee Dugard. The Garridos have been charged with the kidnapping, rape and imprisonment of Dugard, who was taken from South Lake Tahoe in 1991.
Orrey said Wednesday that the interior of the home on the adjacent property and above ground had been searched.
Thursday's find followed the announcement Wednesday that bones were found on the Garrido property as well as the next-door home.
It was not immediately clear if any of the newly discovered bones were animal or human, Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jimmy Lee said. Tests were underway to determine where the bones may have originated.
Two weeks ago, searchers also came across a bone in the four-day search of Garrido's property immediately after Dugard surfaced. That bone was determined to probably be human, according to Lee, who added remains of early Native Americans are common in the county.
The bone was being sent to a DNA analysis laboratory for further testing.
Hayward and Dublin police served search warrants at the Walnut Avenue properties for a second round of searches Tuesday morning.
News10/KXTV
