No Human Remains Detected At Peninsula Buried Car Site: Cops

ATHERTON, CA — No human remains were detected at an Atherton home where last week a vehicle was found buried in the back yard of a $15 million home, police told reporters Monday morning, KRON reports.

The Mercedes Benz convertible at the center of a mystery that's made national headlines had been reported stolen out of Palo Alto in 1992 by the property’s since-deceased owner, Atherton police said.

Atherton police have shuttered the on-site investigation, the agency said Monday

Officers at around 8:50 a.m. Thursday responded to the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue on the report that landscapers found a buried vehicle while working on a project, police said.

The vehicle was filled with bags of concrete and buried 4 to 5 feet deep, possibly in the 1990s, according to police.

Police previously said the dogs on Thursday picked up “a slight notification of possible human remains” may have detected human remains, blood, old bones, or vomit.

Johnny Bocktune Lew, who owned the 351 Stockbridge Ave. property in the 1990s, had a lengthy criminal history that included a 1977 conviction on two counts of attempted murder and a murder conviction in the 1960s that was later overturned, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Lew was accused of paying undercover officers $30,000 in cash and gold watches valued at $20,000 to sink a $1.2 million yacht in part of an alleged insurance fraud scheme, the report said.

The vehicle was buried before the current homeowner moved in, police said.

Lew was 77 when he died in 2015.

“The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation,” police said.

The property was built in 1990 and sold for $15 million in 2020 according to Zillow, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. It sold for $7.3 million in 2014.

Atherton, a community of around 7,000 located about 30 miles south of San Francisco, is one of the nation's most wealthy towns.