http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/us/30 ... nted=print





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May 30, 2006
F.B.I. Finds No Trace of Hoffa and Calls Off Search
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
DETROIT, May 30 — The Federal Bureau of Investigation called off its search for the remains of the former Teamster leader James R. Hoffa today, saying it found no trace of Mr. Hoffa on a suburban horse farm.

The search began nearly two weeks ago on the Hidden Dreams Farm in Milford, Mich., northwest of Detroit, and 17 miles from the restaurant where Mr. Hoffa had been scheduled to meet two organized crime figures when he disappeared on July 30, 1975.

"After a thorough and comprehensive search, no remains of Mr. Hoffa have been located," Judith M. Chilen, an assistant special agent, said at a news briefing at the entrance to the farm this afternoon.

But Ms. Chilen said she was convinced that Mr. Hoffa's body had been buried on the farm, and there was "no indication that it has been moved." Investigators said that they might return to the farm in the future and that the investigation would remain open.

"There are still prosecutable defendants and they know who they are," Ms. Chilen said.

A team of more than three dozen agents, geologists, archeologists and other experts spent 12 days digging on the farm, demolishing a 100-foot barn last week so that they could examine the ground beneath the foundation. They discovered a trench beneath the barn, along with water pipes and other debris.

The search — which involved agents from the F.B.I.'s offices in Washington, Detroit and Chicago, as well as the local police — was the most extensive in recent years. It set off by a "fairly credible" tip from an F.B.I. informant, now in prison, who claimed he saw Mr. Hoffa laid to rest at the farm, rolled up in a rug.

The search captivated the village of Milford, where merchants rolled out specials to commemorate the excavation. The Milford Baking Company sold 3,500 Hoffa cupcakes, at 95 cents apiece, with green plastic hands sticking up through icing and sprinkles meant to resemble dirt.

Signs popped up outside businesses all over town, with slogans such as "Forget Waldo: Where's Hoffa?"

But the search was no laughing matter to one area congressman, Representative Joe Knollenberg, a Republican of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who questioned the expense of the search, which local news reports had said could be as much as $500,000. Today, agents said the F.B.I. had spent less than $250,000, with some of the expense coming from tearing down the horse barn.

On Friday, the F.B.I. had issued a statement saying the search was justified. "The expenditure of funds has always been necessary in each and every case the F.B.I. works, and this one is no exception," said Daniel D. Roberts, the special agent in charge of the Detroit office. He went on, "We will not abandon our responsibility to investigate a pending organized crime case because it might be termed 'too old.' "

Numerous such leads in the past have failed to turn up the body of Mr. Hoffa, who has been missing since he failed to return home for dinner on July 30, 1975.

Police, who had been contacted by his family, found his 1974 Pontiac the next day in the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Mich.

The F.B.I. has plenty of experiencing searching for Mr. Hoffa, following clues that have placed his body in spots ranging from the Meadowlands in New Jersey to a house in Detroit.

In fact, the first tip that he had been buried came 17 days after his disappearance, prompting the agency to search a construction site in northern Michigan. Moreover, the latest search was the third in the past two years by the F.B.I. here.

None of the searches have touched the area's funny bone so much as this one, however. Over the weekend, agents digging at the farm put down their shovels and posed for a team photograph.

This afternoon, a Hoffa cupcake was fetching $1.99 on Ebay — more than twice the walk-up price — plus $5 for shipping. The auction closes Wednesday.

Nick Bunkley contributed reporting from Milford, Mich., for this article.



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