Major Turn Hinted at in Yosemite Case

A man whose wife and daughter disappeared along with an Argentine exchange student while visiting Yosemite National Park says the FBI informed him of a major development in the case that left him “devastated.”

Jens Sund of Eureka said he was told not to reveal what agents had told him Wednesday evening. But he told reporters at the FBI command center in Modesto, “I’m devastated, my worst possible fears have come true.”

However, a family friend at the same briefing said agents did not say if they had found the women or even their missing red rental car.

“If they had found the ladies or the car, they absolutely would have told us,” Lee Ulansey said. “They’re going off in several different directions. I don’t expect anything tomorrow is going to break loose.”

Law enforcement agents riding all-terrain vehicles were searching for clues Wednesday afternoon in the vicinity of the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, a restaurant and motel on Yosemite’s rugged western border.

Carole Sund, 42, summoned her 15-year-old daughter, Julie, and Silvina Pelosso, a 16-year-old from Cordoba, Argentina, from the restaurant the night of Feb. 15. The girls said they’d be back to finish their dinners. They haven’t been seen since.

FBI Agent Nick Rossi wouldn’t reveal what agents told Sund on Wednesday night, but he said agents would focus their search around El Portal for the next several days because investigators have failed to turn up any credible evidence the women went elsewhere.

“The investigative process that we have been pursuing is one of identifying and then eliminating possibilities,” Rossi said. “It’s only natural that we would focus our efforts on the area where they were last seen.”

Rossi also wouldn’t say whether the arrest of a local man Friday night at the FBI’s request had anything to do with the disappearances. The man was jailed on a parole violation, the Mariposa County sheriff’s department said.

The Holiday Inn in Modesto where the Sund and Pelosso families have set up a command post for the past three weeks was buzzing with activity late Wednesday night. Family friend Ulansey fielded questions as best he could from the media, as half a dozen television trucks were stationed around the hotel. Others were parked at another downtown hotel where the FBI has set up operations.

Sund married into the prominent Carrington family, which made millions in Northern California real estate and now mostly lives in Eureka. The family has offered $300,000 for information.

“It doesn’t look good for my family and I just have to say no comment, which I know sounds like a cop-out, but I do want to protect the strength of the case,” Sund said. “Because of the nature of influencing a potential jury in the future, I want to cooperate and be as careful as I can.”

Ulansey said everyone involved has been devastated by the mystery.

“This whole ordeal is our family and our community’s worst nightmare,” Ulansey said. “As a husband and father, I can’t imagine anything worse happening than my wife and child being missing for three weeks.”

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this story.