Woodland bodies: Police swoop on farmhouse

Police investigating the murder of eight men found inside abandoned vehicles in a remote wooded area near Canada’s US border have swooped on a farmhouse a few miles down the road.

They refused to discuss what was happening beyond a roadblock, set up about three miles from where the bodies were found inside four vehicles in a farmer’s field on Saturday morning. The farm in Shedden, Ontario, is about 90 miles north east of Detroit.

“We’re in the middle of an active investigation right now,” said Ontario police constable Dennis Harwood.

The eight victims knew each other and were all from the Toronto area, said police.

Police found the bodies after a call from the property owner, who is not considered a suspect. No details about the victims were released.

A former member of the Bandidos motorcycle gang said he had talked to current members in the area who recognised the vehicles from media coverage.

“I can tell you that it’s Bandidos that got killed,” said Edward Winterhalder, who left the gang in 2003 and wrote Out In Bad Standings, a book on his time inside the gang.

The owner of the farmhouse on which police descended was affiliated with the Bandidos, Winterhalder said.

An aerial view showed the vehicles parked within 200 yards of each other, with the bodies still inside.

A minivan was discovered in a field about 20 meters off a dirt road. About 100 meters away a tow truck was found parked on the shoulder. The fourth car, its hatch open, was parked in a clearing about 100 meters along the dirt road.

The bodies and the vehicles were removed overnight.

Mary and Russell Steele, who own the property around which the cars were parked, told Global News that the vehicles were not there when they took the road home the night before.

They said they called police after looking inside one of the vehicles and not being able to see anything because of a blanket covering the back window.

“We didn’t see anybody in them, so we just phoned the cops with the licence plate numbers,” Russell Steele said.

“The police opened the back and I could see forms,” his wife said. “I couldn’t tell, but immediately in my mind I thought: ‘These are bodies’.”

The area has been home to several motorcycle clubs, including the Bandidos, Loners and the Hell's Angels. It has witnessed several violent incidents, including the discoveries of two bodies dumped in county fields in separate incidents in 1994 and 1998.

Both were beaten to death. Neither murder has been solved.