For years rumors have persisted that many other victims may have fallen prey to Charles Manson and his followers in the high desert in California. Now a group of forensic scientists believe they have found evidence of buried remains in the parched ground near one-time Manson hideout Barker Ranch.
Over the years, stories have surfaced about others who fell out of favor with the Manson Family and disappeared in the desert. When someone "joined" the family and later tried to leave, Charles Manson would have them tracked down and returned, reports said.
Some of them got away, but others were not so lucky, the stories say. Hippies, hitchhikers and runaways who tried to get away from the paranoid Manson may have ended up buried at Barker Ranch in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley.
Forensic Teams Searches Ranch
Last month a team of searchers brought the latest technology with them to search the area around the ranch for the existence of human remains.
The team included Arpad Vass and Marc Wise, senior researchers from Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Daniel Larson, an archaeologist at California State University, Long Beach and Sgt. Paul Dostie, a police detective and dog handler from the town of Mammoth Lakes.
The Barker Ranch was just one of several hideouts used by the Manson Family in the late 1960s. They fled to the more famous Spahn Ranch after the 1969 murders of Gary Hinman on July 31; Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski, Abigail Folger and Steven Earl Parent on Aug. 9; and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca on Aug. 10.
Fleeing to Barker Ranch
Police raided the Spahn Ranch at daybreak on Aug. 16 and arrested 26 people. They all were release a few days later due to a mix-up with the search warrant. Rather than return to the Spahn Ranch, Manson moved the family to the Barker Ranch.
Mason was later arrested at the Barker Ranch, hiding in a bathroom cabinet.
Included in the search team that went to the ranch last month was Emmett Harder, a prospector who had a mining claim near the Barker Ranch and who knew many of the Manson Family members, giving them work at times.
The Next Step: Dig
Also on the search team was Debra Tate, who was 17 when her sister actress Sharon Tate was killed by the Mason family. Now the lone survivor of her family, she has made it her life's work to make sure none of the Manson Family members ever get out of prison.
The team was not on the scene long when Sgt. Dotsie's cadaver dog alerted on a possible burial site. Using their sophisticated equipment, the scientists found several locations that produced positive results.
The team believes bodies are buried at Barker Ranch, but they cannot know for sure until the graves are uncovered. That's the recommendation the searchers made to law enforcement concerning the site: start digging.
See Also:
Forensic Experts Say of Manson Site: Dig
Background:
Profile of Charles Manson
The Manson Family Photo Album
Profiles of Other Manson Family Members
Forum:
Discuss The Charles Manson Case
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Photo: Mug Shot
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