Crime & Safety

Update: Latest Search for Jimmy Hoffa Under Way in Roseville

Update: Soil samples taken Friday are being sent to Michigan State University for analysis to determine if the former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa may be buried under a concrete slab in Roseville

Updated 3:10 p.m. Sept. 28: Roseville Police Chief James Berlin told The Detroit News that four samples were taken Friday morning and will be examined by the anthropology department at Michigan State University. He added, "There are no visible human remains present."

10:48 a.m. Sept. 28: Michigan Department of Environmental Quality personnel are drilling through a concrete slab at a home in Roseville to take soil samples to determine if a body—possibly missing Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa—is buried underneath a shed.

The crews are taking the soil samples at the home located near Common and Gratiot, following a tip that a body was buried at the home.

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According to The Detroit News, the tip came from a Hoffa biographer that the union leader may be buried at the home.

While news of another possible final resting place for Hoffa has caused a swarm of media to surround the ranch style house—and included a live report during the Today show—the city's police chief is approaching it as a standard investigation.

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"We have never advocated this is Jimmy Hoffa," said police chief James Berlin. "We feel the tipster was credible to a point that he believed he saw a body being interred. Who that is we have no idea. That is why we are here."

A machine will go down six feet and take a core sample, Berlin said, and that will be sent to Michigan State University to test it for human remains. If it comes back positive as early as Monday afternoon, the body will be exhumed and an investigation will begin.

"There is a nexus between this home and possible ties to Detroit organized crime," Berlin added. "Which cues the nexus into the Hoffa investigation."

This is the latest search for Hoffa, who was last seen leaving the former Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township. Through the years there has been talk that Hoffa was buried under Giants Stadium in New York, freeways in Detroit and a barn in Milford. All came back negative.


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