Unearthed Body Identified as Missing Lake Neighbor

One of the two bodies buried in sleeping bags near suspected mass murderer Leonard Lake’s remote hillside cabin was identified Tuesday as a neighbor man missing since May.

Calaveras County Coroner Terry Parker said that the body was identified through fingerprints as Lonnie Bond, 27, who disappeared last May along with Brenda O’Connor and their 2-year-old son, Lonnie Jr. The exact cause of death probably will be determined in the next two days, Parker said.

The body was one of two buried in a shallow grave within a mile of the cabin used by Lake, a self-styled survivalist who has been linked to the deaths or disappearances of more than 22 people. He committed suicide while in police custody in June. The other body buried with Bond’s has not been identified.

At least 11 bodies have been recovered near the remote cabin used by Lake and companion Charles Ng, 24. But Bond’s body is only the second to be identified.

The first was that of Randy Jacobson, 36, of San Francisco, who disappeared from his Haight Ashbury rooming house in October, 1984, after becoming involved in a business deal with Lake.

Ng, who is being held in Canada on an attempted murder charge, is named in a California warrant on two counts of murder in the deaths of O’Connor and Kathleen Allen of San Jose. It is not known whether their bodies were among the remains found at the site.

Bones, weapons, bloody tools and videotapes of sexual torture also were found at the house. Authorities have identified O’Connor as one of the women Ng tormented on the videotape.

Bond’s body and the other adult corpse were found one week ago, buried in sleeping bags about 18 inches below ground off a winding mountain road. Coroner’s officials estimated they had been dead three to six months.