HotmailForensic experts say of Manson site: Dig
Reading molecular profiles
Using a thin, 3-foot long probe, Vass tested the soil in the area. It slid into the ground without much effort.
"Undisturbed soil isn't this easy to probe," he said.
"The loose soil area is roughly like this," he said, using the tip of the instrument to draw a long oval on the ground. "It's about three feet deep."
"We need to do an IR," he said, turning to Wise.
He was calling for the next piece of machinery — larger and heavier, but more specific. It could be calibrated to detect different compounds, using technology known as infrared spectroscopy to "read" a particular molecule's profile.
"We're getting the highest hits here, where the ground is soft," said Wise. "There's definitely something down there," he said. "We just can't know yet exactly what until we dig."
"Or who," said Vass.
The men crouched close to the ground, gathering three samples of dirt from each area of interest for further analysis using more finely tuned lab equipment that could not be brought into the field.
The group broke for lunch. Dostie shared bread and cold cuts in front of the ranch house where Manson was finally arrested, in October 1969, after being found crammed in a bathroom cabinet.
Afterward, Daniel Larson took up his part of the investigation. An archaeologist at California State University, Long Beach, Larson has used Ground Penetrating Radar and a magnetometer — an instrument that can peer 12 feet into the ground — in archaeological work and to help find burial sites.
At Barker Ranch, he took 5,327 readings of the ground at the suspect site, stopping every four inches within a 26-by-20-foot grid, looking for discrepancies that indicated earth had been moved.
"What I'm looking for is the pit, not the bones," he explained.
He'll have to return later to use the Ground Penetrating Radar. The soil still held some moisture from recent storms, and that could disturb the results.
Memories of Manson
Watching the scientists do their work, Harder spoke of his memories of the Manson clan — the churlish, armed young men, the pretty girls with blank, doll-like expressions.
"I didn't feel real easy around them," he said. "They picked up all kinds of people — hitchhikers and stuff."
He particularly remembers two teenage runaways who escaped the ranch, then stopped at a nearby mining camp for food. They had enough fear in them to make it out of the rugged mountains barefoot, said Harder.
They turned themselves in to the California Highway Patrol at the mouth of Anvil Springs Canyon — booked as Stephanie Jean Schram, 17, a runaway from Anaheim, and Kathryn Rene Lutesinger, 17, a runaway from Los Angeles, on Oct. 10, 1969.
"Both females stated that they were attempting to run away from 'Charlie' the leader of the 'family' and that they were afraid of their lives," read the CHP report.
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