Police to dig for Manson victim graves

AS INVESTIGATORS pore over forensic evidence and consider digging for bodies at a remote ranch where Charles Manson and his acolytes once hid out, new information has emerged to bolster reports of possible clandestine grave sites in the barren California desert, authorities say.

An ad hoc team of detectives and forensic investigators visited Barker Ranch last month to test the soil for evidence of decomposed bodies. Follow-up laboratory testing revealed that at least two sites could be unmarked graves, and the group is urging local investigators to begin excavating.

Former Inyo County detective John Little said on Wednesday he was sent into the desert in 1974 by his former boss to investigate possible human remains buried at Barker Ranch.

“He said I should go up and take a look around the Barker Ranch and try to find four grave sites somewhere about 150 yards from the building,” said Little. “At that time, there wasn’t a lot of really good forensic techniques to find things. Imagine what you could find with the sonar stuff they have now.”

Paul Dostie, a police detective who was on the team that visited the ranch in February, suspects Gardiner was tipped off to their presence by Dianne Lake, a former member of the Manson family.

Prosecutors say Lake’s parents encouraged her to join Manson and his followers when she was just 14.

Members believed they were a select group that would eventually come to rule the US if they carried out gruesome killings that Manson ordered.

The clan was ultimately prosecuted for nine murders that took place in the summer of 1969.

Lake was later arrested in a raid, and Gardiner and his wife took her in to “deprogramme” her, said Steve Kay, the former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who prosecuted Manson.

“How would Gardiner know with such specificity the sites of these graves if it weren’t for Dianne Lake telling him? It just fits too well,” said Dostie.

Meanwhile officials are poring over evidence gathered at the ranch. Sheriff John Eropkin said a decision on whether to dig is expected next week.