W-OLF
05-18-2006, 08:56 PM
MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - The FBI said Thursday that a search of a horse farm for clues to Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance is expected to take at least a couple weeks and likely will involve the removal of a barn.
Federal agents began digging at Hidden Dreams Farm on Wednesday in a search for "the human remains of James Riddle Hoffa," according to the search warrant, obtained by The Associated Press.
The former Teamsters leader disappeared in 1975 on a night he was to have dinner at a restaurant about 20 miles away.
Hoffa was to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain, and investigators have longed suspected the two had Hoffa killed to prevent him from regaining the union control after he served time in federal prison for jury tampering.
"This is the best lead I've seen come across on the Hoffa investigation," Daniel Roberts, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI field office, said Thursday outside the farm.
He declined to say where the lead came from but said the search included the use of heavy construction equipment and investigators expected to be there a couple weeks.
For years, there have been rumors in the surrounding neighborhood that Hoffa had been killed and buried there at the order of mobsters and others who didn't want Hoffa to regain power over the Teamsters. Deb Koskovich said she heard the rumor about Hoffa's body two decades ago from a neighbor when she moved next door.
"We laughed and that was the end of that," said Koskovich, 52. "I never thought about it again until today so apparently there have been rumors."
A law enforcement official in Washington said the search was based on information developed several years ago and verified more recently.
The information indicated there was a high level of suspicious activity on the farm the day Hoffa vanished, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. A backhoe appeared near a barn that organized crime members had used for meetings, but that location was never used again after Hoffa disappeared, the official said.
Roberts would not say who owned the property when Hoffa disappeared but said it was now under different ownership.
BellSouth
Federal agents began digging at Hidden Dreams Farm on Wednesday in a search for "the human remains of James Riddle Hoffa," according to the search warrant, obtained by The Associated Press.
The former Teamsters leader disappeared in 1975 on a night he was to have dinner at a restaurant about 20 miles away.
Hoffa was to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain, and investigators have longed suspected the two had Hoffa killed to prevent him from regaining the union control after he served time in federal prison for jury tampering.
"This is the best lead I've seen come across on the Hoffa investigation," Daniel Roberts, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI field office, said Thursday outside the farm.
He declined to say where the lead came from but said the search included the use of heavy construction equipment and investigators expected to be there a couple weeks.
For years, there have been rumors in the surrounding neighborhood that Hoffa had been killed and buried there at the order of mobsters and others who didn't want Hoffa to regain power over the Teamsters. Deb Koskovich said she heard the rumor about Hoffa's body two decades ago from a neighbor when she moved next door.
"We laughed and that was the end of that," said Koskovich, 52. "I never thought about it again until today so apparently there have been rumors."
A law enforcement official in Washington said the search was based on information developed several years ago and verified more recently.
The information indicated there was a high level of suspicious activity on the farm the day Hoffa vanished, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. A backhoe appeared near a barn that organized crime members had used for meetings, but that location was never used again after Hoffa disappeared, the official said.
Roberts would not say who owned the property when Hoffa disappeared but said it was now under different ownership.
BellSouth