3 Bodies Found on California Farm : Suspect in 8 Disappearances Kills Himself, Another Sought

The skeletal remains of at least three people were unearthed Friday from crude graves on the grounds of a Calaveras County home frequented by a man linked to the disappearances of eight Northern California people, authorities said.

Investigators ordered the county coroner’s office to bring 10 body bags to the site and said a painstaking search for more remains would take at least another week.

“We will continue . . . until we accomplish what we came to accomplish,” Calaveras County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron McFall told a press conference here Friday.

A suspect in the disappearances, Leonard Thomas Lake, 39, apparently poisoned himself Sunday, shortly after he was arrested at a lumberyard in South San Francisco.

Evidence Found

Lake died Thursday before making a statement to police, but evidence uncovered in the subsequent investigation linked him to the disappearances, police said. His ex-wife, Claralyn, is listed in county assessor’s records as half-owner of the home in Wilseyville, 20 miles northeast of here, where the remains were found.

Lake lived at the home off and on for a few years, according to neighbors who knew him as “Charles Gunnar.” Police said they had no idea whether he had another residence.

An associate of Lake, Charles Ng, 24, fled the lumberyard before police arrived and is being sought by Northern California authorities. He is believed to be linked to at least three of the missing people, police said.

Two of the bodies discovered Friday were buried in a shallow telephone cable trench near the house, which is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence on a two-acre parcel in the remote, rustic town in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Another skeleton was discovered a short distance away in a small grave alongside the house’s driveway, McFall said.

Charred Skeleton

The third skeleton had been severely charred, McFall said. Near that grave, investigators found several fragments of human bones. It was not immediately clear whether the bones came from the third skeleton or from other victims, police said.

Investigators said they were conducting further tests to determine whether the skeletons matched those of the eight people whose disappearances were reportedly linked to Lake or Ng.

Deborah Dubs, 33; her husband Harvey, 29, and their 16-month-old son, Sean, vanished in July, 1984. Residents of the Eureka Valley section of San Francisco, they disappeared after going to meet someone who had answered a newspaper ad about renting the Dubs’ video equipment, San Francisco police said.

Video equipment and tapes linked to the Dubs were found in the Wilseyville house, San Francisco homicide Detective Jeff Brosch said. A man matching Ng’s description was seen using the Dubs’ credit cards after their disappearance, other police officials said.

Driving Auto

Also missing was San Francisco used-car salesman Paul Cosner, who disappeared Nov. 2 when he showed a car to someone answering his classified ad, San Francisco Police Officer Carrie Lucas said. Lake was driving Cosner’s car when he was arrested at the lumberyard, police said.

Other evidence found in the Wilseyville home also linked Lake to the Cosner and Dubs disappearances, according to detectives, who declined to elaborate.

Detectives also disclosed Friday that they were investigating Lake’s links to a Wilseyville family of four, who, until they vanished one month ago, lived next door to the home where the bodies were found. The names of the three adults and one child and the circumstances of their disappearance were not released.

The investigation that led to the discovery of the bodies began Sunday with a seemingly routine police call from employees at the South San Francisco Lumberyard.

South San Francisco Police Lt. George Baptista said a man, later identified as Ng, was seen removing a vise from the lumberyard and hiding it in a car driven by his companion, Lake.

Apparently aware that he had been seen, Ng fled, but Lake attempted to still the commotion by offering to pay for the vise, Baptista said. Police officers then searched Lake’s car and found the vise, a .22-caliber pistol and an illegal silencer.

Arrested for possession of the silencer, Lake was taken to the South San Francisco police station, where he identified himself with an alias, Baptista said.

An hour later, when officers questioned his identity, Lake wrote a farewell note to his ex-wife, told police he was wanted in Mendocino County and collapsed, Baptista said. He was taken to Kaiser Hospital in South San Francisco, where he was kept alive by life-support equipment until it was disconnected on Thursday.

An autopsy conducted Friday failed to disclose a cause of death, but Baptista said police surmise that Lake swallowed poison when he used the restroom at the lumberyard. Toxicology tests were under way, coroner’s officials said.

Lake’s ex-wife, questioned after his death, mentioned that he used the Calaveras County home, leading detectives to search it beginning Wednesday.

Baptista said Lake and Ng were arrested several years ago in connection with Ng’s theft of automatic weapons and explosives from his Marine base in Hawaii.

Fled County

After the theft, Ng escaped from a military stockade and made his way to Lake’s Mendocino County ranch. Discovered in a raid by FBI agents, Ng was court-martialed and served time in Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas, Baptista said. Lake fled Mendocino County before his trial and was not accounted for by authorities until Sunday.

However, Lake was known in Wilseyville. Neighbors said he mostly kept to himself, an anomaly in the close-knit, friendly town. He attended Bible study classes at a nearby home, and told acquaintances he had retired from the service. About two months ago, Lake held a garage sale on Chuck Whiteley’s property, selling tires, lamps and furniture.

“He said he was an ex-Marine,” said Whiteley, owner of the Wilseyville General Store. “He was kind of a quiet person, reserved, I would say. But he had a kind of an arrogant air about him.”

Leo C. Wolinsky reported from San Andreas and Wilseyville. Mark A. Stein reported from San Francisco. Times staff writer Cathleen Decker in Los Angeles also contributed to this story.