The $15 million property where landscapers discovered a car buried in the backyard once belonged to a deceased man with arrests for murder and insurance fraud, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
According to ABC7, police believe the car had been there since the 1990’s and buried four to five feet into the ground.
Property records show the home in the wealthy suburb of Atherton, South of San Francisco, belonged at that time to Johnny Bocktune Lew. The Chronicle says he had a long history of alleged crimes.
The newspaper reports prosecutors say he once told undercover investigators to sink his 56-foot boat. Authorities alleged he had hoped to file an insurance claim for the loss.
Prosecutors also say Lew had an affair with a woman named Karen Gervasi. She suffered a gunshot wound in 1965 and died in Los Angeles County, but Lew told police it was an accident. A jury the next year found him guilty of murder.
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The State Supreme Court reversed the conviction in 1968, saying the case was based on heresay evidence.
In 1977, Lew was convicted of attempted murder and served three years in prison.
Cadaver dogs have been brought in to the scene of the buried car as authorities dig it up. CBS News reports the dogs “made a slight notification of possible human remains,” but so far none have been found.
“The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation,” police said in a statement.
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