MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – The FBI on Wednesday searched property northwest of Detroit for clues to the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, officials said. TV newscasts showed people with shovels and freshly turned dirt at the site.
The Teamsters leader was last seen in July 1975 at a restaurant in Oakland County’s Bloomfield Township.
Agent Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, said the bureau was executing a search warrant in Milford Township, about 35 miles from Detroit.
Investigators are looking for “evidence of criminal activity that may have occurred under previous ownership” on the property, Clenney said.
Asked if they were looking for Hoffa’s remains, she said, “Could be,” but declined to comment further.
Reporters were not allowed on the property, described by local media as a horse farm. Images shot from helicopters showed about a dozen people, some with shovels, standing by an area of newly turned dirt about 10 feet by 15 feet.
Deb Koskovich, 52, said one of her neighbors told her after she moved next door to the farm in 1985 that Hoffa was buried there. “He laughed and we laughed and that was the end of that,” said Koskovich, adding that she would be surprised if Hoffa’s remains were found.
“I never thought about it again until today.”
Clenney said the bureau receives numerous leads about Hoffa and “this was one we felt we needed to follow up on.”
In May 2004, authorities ripped up the floorboards of a Detroit home where Frank Sheeran, a one-time Hoffa ally, had claimed he shot Hoffa to death. But no evidence related to the infamous, unsolved killing was found.
Sheeran’s claim was included in a book published months after he died in 2003 at age 83.
A New Jersey mob hit man who died in March reportedly made a similar deathbed claim.
Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski gave author Philip Carlo what he claimed were graphic details of Hoffa’s killing, The Record of Bergen County, N.J., reported.
“The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer” is scheduled for release in July.
Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca said Bloomfield Township police were offering assistance but that he knew little about the latest search.
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