Body Found Saturday : Man’s Hanging by Firm’s Strikers Is Ruled Out

The possibility that Jeffrey Scott Hanson was hanged because he was a strikebreaker at a Chula Vista construction firm has been ruled out, a Chula Vista police spokesman said Monday.

Hanson was found Saturday hanging nude from a tree in a canyon behind his Chula Vista home. He had been missing since Oct. 13. Hanson told roommates that he was going to Bonita Plaza, just beyond the canyon where his body was found, and seemed in high spirits when he left, according to Chula Vista Police Sgt. Alan Smith.

Smith said that police do not believe Hanson committed suicide because no note was found in the canyon near Interstate 805 at California 54.

Hanson was recently hired to replace a striking worker at Nelson & Sloan Concrete and Materials Co. in Chula Vista.

Smith said there seems to be no reason why Hanson would be singled out by strikers in an attempt to retaliate against those crossing the picket lines, adding that some of the strikers helped the family search for Hanson after he disappeared.

“If the strikers were going to go after someone,” Smith said, “they would go after a foreman or truck driver, but (Hanson) did not pose a threat to anyone’s job.”

There have been reports of threats to others who have crossed the picket lines, Smith said, but nobody has been harassed at home or beyond the company’s premises.

Hanson’s mother, Wanda, has worked at a restaurant near the company for many years and is familiar with many of its employees, Smith said, adding that many of the strikers knew Hanson and his mother and probably would not single him out for violence.

“We can’t find anybody who disliked him enough to do something like that,” he said.

The initial autopsy on Hanson revealed no signs of a struggle before the hanging, Smith said. Hanson’s clothes were found in a pile near the tree where he was hanged. Detectives found $40 in Hanson’s wallet and his car keys, Smith said.

Chula Vista police were investigating the death Monday with few leads, Smith said.