Police hunt for more bodies at Manson ranch

IT IS a crime that shocked America and has left rumours swirling in its wake for the past 40 years.

But law enforcement officials will attempt to lay them to rest next week when they move in on a Death Valley ranch where Charles Manson and his supporters hid after their murderous spree in 1969.

Seven people were killed, including Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, by Manson and his cult followers in a horrific two-day outburst of violence.

Ever since, however, there have been suspicions that the seven identified victims may not have been the final tally and that others are buried on the Barker Ranch, the Manson gang's final hideout before capture by the US police.

On May 20, a forensic team will move to the remote ranch in California's Death Valley National Park to begin digging for evidence in the sandy soil.

The new move follows an earlier visit to the ranch in February, which found at least two sites that could be clandestine graves holding the bodies of additional victims. It has long been thought that hitchhikers may have been picked up, killed and their bodies hidden while the Manson family was living there before the later murders.

The police forensic team was armed with special instruments that detect human decomposition and a cadaver-seeking dog, and accompanied by a group of researchers that included the sister of the murdered actress.

Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze said he will allow a limited four-day excavation of the ranch because forensic tests of the soil had produced mixed results.

"There was no consistent response from the dogs that searched, and no conclusive findings from the soil samplings tested by top experts in the field," Lutze said.

"The only way to determine once and for all whether there are bodies buried at Barker Ranch from the time of the Manson family is to proceed with limited excavation."

National Park Service officials said the ranch, which lies in the rugged Panamint Mountain range, would be closed for as long as four days "to protect the integrity of the investigative process".

It was briefly closed in April, but a decision to dig was put off because a piece of hi-tech soil-testing equipment was damaged en route to the site. Authorities said they wanted to conduct tests using lasers before disturbing the soil.

Scientists completed four kinds of tests at five locations on the ranch and found some corroboration of a "possible find of human remains" at some of the sites, Lutze said.

Retired homicide detective Sgt Bill Gleason, who worked on the original case, is helping the investigation. He said: "There have been rumours of other murders for decades, but until now we haven't had anything concrete to work on. This is a major breakthrough."

Manson and his followers hid out in the decrepit ranch after a series of gruesome murders set Los Angeles on edge in 1969. They were arrested there in a raid and an officer found Manson hiding in a cabinet beneath a bathroom sink.

Convicted with four others on multiple counts of murder and other charges, Manson is serving a life sentence at Corcoran State Prison in California.

Now 73, he has been questioned recently about other victims, but is believed to have volunteered no new information.

Murder spree

The killing orgy aimed at provoking a race war began on August 8, 1969, when a group of Charles Manson's followers broke into Polanski's rented home in Los Angeles. First to die was 18-year-old Steven Parent, who was shot while driving his car through the grounds. Inside the house, the murder gang found Polanski was away in London working on a film. The other occupants that night, Sharon Tate, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger, were slaughtered.

The next night, six family members, accompanied by Manson, went in search of more victims. They arrived at the home of Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. After tying them up, Manson left and gang members were sent in to stab them to death.