From Deseret News archives:
Utah team helps in search for other Manson victims
The Utah Attorney General's Office and the Uintah County Sheriff's Office recently sent investigators to the Barker Ranch in Death Valley, Calif., to use their expertise in forensic technology to help search for human remains. Members of the newly invigorated Utah Technology Assistance Program (UTAP) spent time at the site earlier this month, helping in the Inyo County Sheriff's investigation.
"I believe that a crime scene has a soul," said Charles Illsley, a retired West Valley City police detective and now a forensic consultant for UTAP. "When something evil happens at a crime scene, that lingers. There was a very dark aura about that place."
Authorities are searching the remote ranch where Manson and his followers hid out after a 1969 killing spree. Manson is serving a life sentence for the slayings of seven people. The Inyo County Sheriff's Office said reports have suggested there may be more bodies at the Barker Ranch that have not been found.
Using ground-penetrating radar, magnetometers, lasers and alternative light sources, investigators searched for bone fragments and other human remains. UTAP sent its ultra-high-tech laser equipment.
"This is the stuff of television's 'CSI' series," Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze said in a statement. "A laser ... causes bones to literally glow at a great distance, which is helpful to search teams covering a large outdoor area."
The technology is fairly new, and Illsley is pioneering its advancements.
"Everybody in forensics knows that bones will fluoresce and glow," he told the Deseret News on Monday. "Nobody's taken it out of the lab to a body dumpsite to look for human remains."
Illsley will not reveal if they found anything, but soil samples have been sent to a lab for testing. Those results are due back May 9.
Lasers have been successful in helping to solve cold cases in Utah, where terrain is similar to that in Death Valley.
"Some of this equipment is so cutting edge that it does not exist in the marketplace," Lutze said. "This case will dramatically alter how police agencies search outdoor crime scenes in the future."
Illsley said it was strange to be at Manson's hideout, noting that it was the book "Helter Skelter," about the killings, that got him into law enforcement in the first place. The Utah Attorney General's Office recently resurrected UTAP to help solve cold cases using new advancements in forensic technology.
"He is a notorious killer," Ken Wallentine, the Utah Attorney General's chief of law enforcement, said of Manson. "What's important for us is bringing closure to crime victims."
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
