The State - News from Aug. 30, 1985

Atascadero police, seeking the bodies of 10 to 15 children and infants said to have been ritually slain and buried in a thicket, ended four days of digging after finding only animal bones. “We have examined the three areas very thoroughly. We have come up with no human remains, to the joy of many,” Police Chief Richard McHale said. McHale said investigators will confer with the state Department of Justice to determine if excavations will be made in other areas of the San Luis Obispo County city. The dig was started across the street from the former home of a fugitive couple charged with 33 counts of child molestation. Rodney Allen Phelps and his wife, Linda, both 45, fled last year after four co-defendants, including their daughter, Deborah McCuan, were sentenced to between 240 and 268 years in prison for child molestation.