Investigators are expected to reveal new details Monday about a car that was discovered buried in the backyard of an Atherton estate last week and was removed Saturday.
Sources told NBC Bay Area that police managed to fully excavate the Mercedes Benz convertible Saturday, and it was taken to a crime lab, where it's being scoured for evidence.
Authorities are expected to provide updates Monday.
Johnny Bocktune Lew, the former owner of the estate in the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue, is believed to have buried the car about 30 years ago after he reported it stolen in 1992. Lew died in 2015 at age 77.
Police said they still don't know why the car was buried.
Cadaver dogs had mild hits when they sniffed the scene, authorities said, indicating they might have smelled human remains. No human remains have been found.
Officials said the car was buried about 4 to 5 feet underground. The current homeowners had no idea the car was buried there.
Atherton resident Don Traeger told NBC Bay Area that he only spoke to Lew in passing.
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“I ran into him a few times. You know, you had no idea,” he said.
Like most people, Traeger wonders why Lew would report his car stolen, fill it with several bags of cement and bury it in the backyard.
“I think it’s crazy. How could you have a place like this? Property values so high, and you’re scamming like, I don't know, $8,000 car. It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Traeger added that he had no idea Lew once told investigators he was involved in organized crime or that he was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend in the 1960s.
Lew was also convicted of attempted murder of another person in 1977 and had numerous other run-ins with the law including insurance fraud in the 1990s, involving a plot to sink his yacht by the Golden Gate Bridge and collect the insurance money.
