"CSI" came to San Marino on Friday.
Dozens of investigators armed with shovels, cadaver-sniffing dogs, ground-penetrating radar and other high-tech tools descended on a corner of the mansion-studded community not used to such intense police activity.
San Marino has been thrust into a starring role in a bizarre case involving a Boston man with numerous aliases, a body found in the backyard of a house and a long-forgotten missing persons case.
Authorities on Friday went to a Lorain Road house looking for buried bodies and other evidence. A young couple who lived at the home vanished in 1985 and, nine years later, the remains of an unidentified man were found buried in the backyard.
The cold case generated new interest this month after the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department named a Boston man, Clark Rockefeller, as a person of interest in the disappearance and suspected deaths of the couple, Jonathan and Linda Sohus.
As the case made national headlines over the last few weeks, San Marino residents have gotten caught up in the mystery. But their amusement turned to dismay Friday amid a sea of yellow police tape, roadblocks and the thunder of news helicopters.
"Our china was shaking," said one resident of the upscale neighborhood who declined to give her name.
Three neighborhood mothers paused during their morning walk to chat at West Drive and Sherwood Road, within sight of the police tape. They had awakened to the sound of helicopters, suspected it was police out at the house on Lorain Road again and stopped by to take a look.
They were unhappy to see Lorain Road closed and police patrolling the street. Some neighbors had posted "No Parking" signs on their lawns. Garbage trucks circled, unable to enter the area, and drivers stopped to ask what to do.
"The whole San Marino Police Department is out here," said Terry Welder, 47.
"This is a major thoroughfare," said Marla Felber, 44, an architect, adding that nearby elementary and middle schools dismiss students at 2:30 p.m. "This is going to be pandemonium."
"I feel sorry for the family" that lives in the house, she said. "They didn't buy into that."
Shelley Enger, 44, who was walking two dogs, still lives in the nearby house where she grew up. When she heard the helicopters Friday morning, she headed outside with binoculars to investigate. "I think it's sad nobody figured it out before," Enger said.
