Valley Man Among 5 Bodies Found in Reservoir

Divers late Tuesday recovered the body of a fifth person dumped in a Calaveras County reservoir, and federal authorities said they were examining possible links between a San Fernando Valley businessman discovered there in October and four bodies found there this week.

A fifth body was pulled from the deep, frigid waters of New Melones Lake near Modesto on Tuesday night as authorities were investigating the possibility that the slayings are linked to a Los Angeles group of Russian immigrants.

With the prospect that more victims could be discovered, FBI and Sacramento law enforcement officials were keeping a tight lid on evidence surrounding the case.

Sherman Oaks real estate developer Meyer Muscatel, 58, was found floating in the New Melones Reservoir, east of Sonora in the Sierra Foothills, on Oct. 18, but authorities did not confirm his identity or release a cause of death until this week.

Nick Rossi, a spokesman for the FBI’s Sacramento field office, said Muscatel’s wrists were bound and his head was covered in a plastic bag when he was found.

Federal agents said the Calaveras County coroner’s office told them Muscatel was smothered.

Acting on a tip from an FBI office investigating slayings possibly linked to organized crime, divers from the Sacramento FBI office and the sheriff’s departments in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties searched the lake last week with sonar equipment.

Two bodies were found Sunday at a depth of 300 feet and a third Monday about three miles away. Authorities have not identified those victims.

At around 7 p.m. Tuesday, divers recovered another body, apparently that of a woman, Rossi said. The body was found at a depth of about 220 feet.

None of the bodies discovered since Sunday have been identified.

FBI officials, who would not elaborate on the slayings, said they went public with their investigation only because residents in the New Melones area feared a serial killer was on the loose.

Muscatel, who owned Sherman Oaks-based Best Avnet, was last seen the evening of Oct. 11.

His daughter, Rachel Muscatel, said he told her he had a meeting with potential investors in a Malibu housing development, but he did not identify them or say where they were meeting.

That day, family members said, Muscatel had called his bank four times and tried to withdraw money, saying he was in danger. He couldn’t get the money because of procedural restrictions, the family said.

Three days later, his green 1992 Ford Explorer was found abandoned at a Gelson’s Market at Millbank Street and Sylmar Avenue in Sherman Oaks.

Rachel Muscatel expressed frustration that authorities took so long to identify her father through fingerprints at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

“They basically just told us, ‘Your father was murdered,’ and then we find out the gory details of how,” she said. “We could have had closure the week after it happened.”

Muscatel said her father grew up in New York City and came to Los Angeles after high school.

After numerous business ventures he got into the housing development business, rehabilitating homes damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Although law enforcement sources said authorities are looking at the possibility the slayings are linked, one official cautioned against describing those responsible as members of some vast organized crime ring.