Soil samples will be taken from beneath a suburban Detroit driveway as police investigate a man's claim he saw a body buried there 35 years ago that might have been that of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
The state Department of Environmental Equality plans to start its work Friday morning in Roseville.
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The samples will be sent to a forensic anthropologist at Michigan State University and tested for human decomposition. Results are not expected before next week.
"It's been our focus since the beginning that it's just a cold case homicide, that possibly a body has been interred there. We have no idea who, and we're going to attempt to find out," James Berlin, Roseville Police Chief, told MyFoxDetroit.com.
It was a tip from a dying man that led investigators to what could finally be the missing clue in what happened to Hoffa, who vanished 37 years ago.
"We are not claiming it’s Jimmy Hoffa, the timeline doesn't add up," Berlin said. "We're investigating a body that may be at the location."
Ground-penetrating radar last week detected an anomaly, or shift, in the soil beneath the Roseville driveway. It found "that the earth had been disturbed at some point in time," Roseville Police Chief James Berlin told MyFoxDetroit.com.
The informant, who police have not identified, is said to be dying of cancer, and was reportedly encouraged to come forward with his tip by Dan Moldea, author of "Hoffa Wars."
"The informant is not mobbed up. He's not connected per se, but he knows somebody. He knows somebody who is in that world," Moldea said.
Moldea claims the FBI ignored the tip, so the man went to Roseville police who felt the information was credible.
Hoffa was last seen on July 30, 1975, outside a suburban Detroit restaurant where he was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain. His body has not been found despite a number of searches over the years.
Innumerable theories about the demise of the union boss have surfaced over time. Among them: He was entombed in concrete at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, ground up and thrown in a
Florida swamp or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant.
The search has continued under a backyard pool north of Detroit in 2003, under the floor of a Detroit home in 2004 and at a horse farm northwest of Detroit in 2006.
The FBI had no immediate comment on the new effort in Roseville to The Associated Press.
Click for more from MyFoxDetroit.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The state Department of Environmental Equality plans to start its work Friday morning in Roseville.
Fox 2 News Headlines
The samples will be sent to a forensic anthropologist at Michigan State University and tested for human decomposition. Results are not expected before next week.
"It's been our focus since the beginning that it's just a cold case homicide, that possibly a body has been interred there. We have no idea who, and we're going to attempt to find out," James Berlin, Roseville Police Chief, told MyFoxDetroit.com.
It was a tip from a dying man that led investigators to what could finally be the missing clue in what happened to Hoffa, who vanished 37 years ago.
"We are not claiming it’s Jimmy Hoffa, the timeline doesn't add up," Berlin said. "We're investigating a body that may be at the location."
Ground-penetrating radar last week detected an anomaly, or shift, in the soil beneath the Roseville driveway. It found "that the earth had been disturbed at some point in time," Roseville Police Chief James Berlin told MyFoxDetroit.com.
The informant, who police have not identified, is said to be dying of cancer, and was reportedly encouraged to come forward with his tip by Dan Moldea, author of "Hoffa Wars."
"The informant is not mobbed up. He's not connected per se, but he knows somebody. He knows somebody who is in that world," Moldea said.
Moldea claims the FBI ignored the tip, so the man went to Roseville police who felt the information was credible.
Hoffa was last seen on July 30, 1975, outside a suburban Detroit restaurant where he was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain. His body has not been found despite a number of searches over the years.
Innumerable theories about the demise of the union boss have surfaced over time. Among them: He was entombed in concrete at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, ground up and thrown in a
Florida swamp or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant.
The search has continued under a backyard pool north of Detroit in 2003, under the floor of a Detroit home in 2004 and at a horse farm northwest of Detroit in 2006.
The FBI had no immediate comment on the new effort in Roseville to The Associated Press.
Click for more from MyFoxDetroit.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.