Lathrop Home Searched In Missing Baby Case
Teen Gave Conflicting Stories Of Infant's Whereabouts, Officials Say

POSTED: 3:12 pm PDT April 9, 2010

LATHROP, Calif. -- Investigators with the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department and cadaver dogs searched a home in Lathrop Friday for a baby who's been missing since earlier this week.

Rich Ibarra/KCRA

The home is in the area of Easy Street and Aries Place.
Although the dogs sniffed through yards at the home, they did not find any leads in the case.

"We would definitely need the baby. I mean, the baby is the most important, not only to determine if a crime has been committed, but to also -- if we could find this baby alive, that's important as well," Deputy Les Garcia said. "There may not even be a crime."
On Wednesday, deputies sifted through garbage in a San Joaquin County landfill in search of the baby, who may have been put into a Dumpster.
Officials said the case involves a juvenile girl who recently gave birth.

The sheriff's department is looking into the possibility that the baby was given away or perhaps put into a Dumpster. Garcia said a 15-year-old girl gave birth Tuesday inside a bathroom at a home in Lathrop. Authorities believe her parents never knew of the pregnancy.
Officials were given a tip about the birth. When officials talked to the girl, she gave conflicting stories about the baby's whereabouts.
The girl received medical help, Garcia said. She's now in the custody of her parents and is not under arrest.

3KCRA Video File: http://www.kcra.com/video/23108212/index.html

San Jose boy, 4, sneaks off, search dog finds him at Jungle Island
By Lisa Fernandez

BODY RECOVERED - BELIEVED TO BE MISSING MODESTO MAN

Modesto Police Department News Release
For Immediate Release

Contact: Sergeant Brian Findlen, (209) 652-1386
Release Date: Wednesday, December 09, 2009, 8:30:00 PM

CSST Cadaver dogs were used to confirm the location where McKinley was believed to be buried. At about noon today detectives uncovered the body of a male adult, believed to be that of Hubert McKinley. The body was found buried in a shallow grave and beneath several inches of snow just south of Highway 108...

Human head, remains found in hills; dead man may be a homicide victim
Jennifer Squires - Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted: 10/02/2008 01:30:32 AM PDT

SCOTTS VALLEY - A hiker found a decomposed human head on a trail in the hills above Scotts Valley High School, and Sheriff's Office detectives think it might be the remains of a homicide victim.

The grisly discovery was made around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday on a trail leading to the Redwood Glen Camp between Glenwood Drive and Bean Creek Road, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Detectives and CSST search dogs found a man's decomposed body hundreds of feet from the trail Wednesday morning, the Sheriff's Office reported.

The Sheriff's Office is considering the case a homicide, though neither the victim nor the manner in which he died has been identified.

Investigators sift through rubble of 41st Avenue blaze
By Cathy Kelly - Sentinel correspondent
Posted: 01/08/2009 01:30:17 AM PST

CAPITOLA - Investigators combed through the tangled and blackened debris of what was once a 41st Avenue furniture warehouse Wednesday, searching for clues to what caused the Sunday night blaze.

Capt. Patrick Sharp, senior investigator with the Central Fire Protection District, said it could take several days to discover the source, as it was time-consuming to remove several wooden beams and other large debris.
Wednesday was the first day investigators were able to make use of some large machinery to sift through the wreckage of what was once the two-story WorkSpace showroom and warehouse.

Three CSST "cadaver dogs" were working at the scene Wednesday also, and Sharp said they were called in to make sure that there were no homeless people inside whom firefighters might have been unaware of. The dogs found nothing, he said.The 11 p.m. fire destroyed WorkSpace, which is about 30 feet behind HomeSpace, a retail store owned by the same family.

Skeletal remains found on San Lorenzo River levee
By CATHY KELLY
Posted: 03/21/2009 01:30:04 AM PDT

An investigator searches for any possible clues... (Jeremiah Ridgeway/Sentinel)

SANTA CRUZ -- Investigators scoured the San Lorenzo River basin near Water Street on Friday after finding human skeletal remains there, and have turned their attention to identifying them, police said.

Several bones were recovered after a search by divers, officers and cadaver dogs, said Sgt. Alan Burt of the county Coroner's Office. But identification can take time, he said

Human bones found on river bank in Santa Cruz
By Cathy Kelly
Posted: 03/20/2009 12:36:37 PM PDT

Investigators scoured the banks of the San Lorenzo River near Water Street in Santa Cruz after finding skeletal remains of a person in the area the day before and last week, police reported Friday.

The search began March 14, when a person walking a dog found a human jawbone on the western side of the levee near the San Lorenzo Park foot bridge, police said. Officers searched the immediate area and did not find any other bones.

Thursday, cadaver dogs helped find additional skeletal remains a few blocks north, near the bridge at Water and Rivers streets, said Zach Friend, spokesman for the Santa Cruz Police Department.

Police theorize that all the remains traveled down the river from a more northerly point. Detectives are processing the scene with help from forensic anthropologists from UC-Santa Cruz and members of the Santa Cruz County Coroner's office, Friend said.

The coroner will perform forensic tests on the skeletal remains to determine the gender, approximate age and any additional information, he said, as well as the cause of death.

Investigators ask anyone with information about this case to call (831) 420-5820. To leave anonymous information, call (831)420-5995.

Is Forensic Science Going to the Dogs?
Written by Douglas Page - Forensic Magazine, october/November 2008

When it comes to cold cases, few are hotter than those associated with the notorious Barker Ranch, the last hideout of the Charles Manson Family before their arrest in October 1969, following a fierce Los Angeles murder spree...

UPDATED: Body may be French Gulch man
By Record Searchlight staff
Originally published 11:47 a.m., September 16, 2008
Updated 11:47 a.m., September 16, 2008

FRENCH GULCH A Shasta County coroner's investigator is examining a recovered body this morning
that could be a 70-year-old French Gulch man who has been missing since Aug. 13, though an
identification has yet to be made.

A spokesman for the sheriff's office said Monday that it was "reasonable to assume" that the body was
that of Allen Maderas, the 70-year-old who went missing in French Gulch on Aug. 13, but that a positive
identification must come from the coroner's office.

Digging up the past in Peru
In 40C heat, a non-governmental organization, the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), scours the ground next to the still-operational military base. Helping them are North American handlers with dogs that have been specially trained to sniff out human remains.

ICF Peru Team Report
"We have done a lot of missing person cases in the US, a lot of criminal cases, a lot of missing Alzheimer's patients, children or suicides," said Pat Lamson, one of the handlers from the US-based Institute for Canine Forensics...

HUMAN BONES FOUND IN RAVINE - TREE TRIMMER SPOTS REMAINS AT REMOTE SITE
February 7, 2007
Section: Local
Edition: Morning Final
Page: 1B
LESLIE GRIFFY, Mercury News

Sgt. Ed Wise, of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, says the bones are not those of abducted Vallejo girl Xiana Fairchild.

Homicide detectives and a team of orange-vested CSST cadaver dogs today will resume scouring a ravine outside Los Gatos after uncovering several dozen bones of an adult under a thin layer of dirt and leaves.
Investigators were not immediately able to identify the person, age or gender. Those questions could take time to answer, according to Santa Clara County Sheriff's Sgt. Ed Wise.

After a day of combing the area, 25 to 40 bones - vertebrae, ribs and arms - were found in about a 30-square-foot part of a steep ravine off Bear Creek Road near Summit Road, Wise said. No clothing or personal effects were found. The adult size of the bones rules out the body as the remains of 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild of Vallejo, who was kidnapped in December 1999. Her skull was found in the Santa Cruz Mountains in January 2001. There are a number of missing people in the Bay Area. Among them: 18-year-old Kristen Modafferi, of San Francisco, 33-year-old Elizabeth Whited, of San Francisco, and 42-year-old Jeanine Sanchez Harms, of
Los Gatos.