The former proprietor of a California manse the place a Mercedes-Benz was found buried in the yard had reported the automobile stolen — and acquired a hefty insurance payout — 30 years in the past, in keeping with a neighborhood paper.
Johnny Bocktune Lew, the person who constructed the $15 million property on property alongside Stockbridge Avenue in Atherton, reported his Mercedes-Benz stolen in 1992, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
Wagstaffe additionally mentioned Lew acquired between $87,000 and $88,000 in insurance cash for the reportedly stolen automobile.
The Atherton Police Department acquired a name on Thursday morning for a report of a buried automobile that was uncovered whereas landscaping work was being finished in the yard. Atherton is positioned roughly 30 miles south of San Francisco.
Over the course of the following a number of days, excavators and Investigators labored to take away the automobile from the scene and discover solutions to how and why it had been positioned there.
On Saturday, a cadaver canine “made notification of possible human remains,” although investigators haven’t recovered any in the automotive or on the property to date.
Police have mentioned the automobile was buried 4 to 5 toes deep, with the entrance going through into the dust, they usually imagine it was positioned there in the Nineties. Investigators recovered “unused bags of concrete throughout the vehicle,” police mentioned.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Lew died in 2015 and had a checkered previous that included tried homicide convictions and a previous insurance fraud arrest.
Lew was convicted in 1977 of tried homicide and spent three years behind bars, the Chronicle reported. He was reportedly busted for insurance fraud in the late ’90s after he unknowingly enlisted undercover cops to maneuver a $1.2 million yacht “into international waters and put it on the bottom.”
Lew was convicted of homicide in 1996, however the verdict was overturned simply years later.
Police have mentioned they imagine the automobile was buried on the property earlier than the present owners moved in. They are nonetheless investigating the circumstances and motive.
