Police Find Body Buried in Backyard of Suicide Victim

Ever since her estranged husband disappeared a year ago, Olivia Bolanos had taken an uncharacteristic interest in her backyard.

She poured rough concrete around much of her garden, then covered another section with red tile, relatives told police. And she remarked that an apricot tree in the yard would benefit “from unusually rich underground nutrients,” Torrance police said.

Digging near that tree Tuesday, detectives uncovered what they believe is the body of Bolanos’ husband, Joseph Baan. Police said they believe that Bolanos killed Baan a year ago and buried his body in a hole 18 inches deep.

Discovery of the remains was the second grisly find at the Newton Street home in recent days. Last Wednesday, days after police questioned Bolanos about Baan’s whereabouts, the 52-year-old woman was found dead, an apparent suicide. She died in a tub of bathwater after slashing her arms and neck with a razor and setting her house afire, police said.

Police uncovered what they believe is Baan’s body about noon Tuesday as his daughter, stepson and sister-in-law watched in a light rain. Coroner’s investigators exhumed the body Tuesday night and will try to determine its identity and the cause of death, according to Torrance Police Sgt. Jack McDonald. He said Bolanos is the only suspect in her husband’s death.

The series of bizarre events surrounding the family began last month when the couple’s daughter, Gizella Baan, called Torrance police to report that her father was missing. Though Baan and Bolanos had separated in 1969, she moved back into his house three years ago and worked there as a housekeeper, Gizella said. The two were friendly, according to their daughter, but they slept in separate rooms.

Although Baan, 62, had been gone for nearly a year, his daughter accepted her mother’s explanation that he had taken a job as a chef on a cruise ship.

Gizella said in an interview outside the home Tuesday that she became suspicious when money that her father had saved ran out and her mother could no longer make house payments. If he were alive, he would have made sure the mortgage was paid, she said.

“I thought when they didn’t have the money, this is really strange,” she said. “He would not just let this house go.”

Police went to the house to question Bolanos on Nov. 6. Her daughter said the woman, who had suffered for years with emotional problems, became even more agitated after the police visit.

Last Wednesday, Gizella Baan received a letter at her Torrance apartment from her mother indicating that she might take her own life.

“She signed off by saying that she would finally have peace,” Baan said. “I knew what that meant.”

Baan said she called her mother immediately but the line was busy. Just five minutes after she put the phone down, Baan said, a neighbor of her mother telephoned saying that her mother’s house was in flames.

Baan, 20, said that her father, a car salesman, had paid her mother $40 or $50 a week to work around the house.