"A Perilous Path": KCRA 3 on the FBI's Dig for Speed Freak Killers Victims Near Linden, 2013

Name: "A Perilous Path": KCRA 3 on the FBI's Dig for Speed Freak Killers Victims Near Linden, 2013
Uploaded: 2013-01-08T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 min 58 s
Description: In January 2013, the FBI began excavating an old well beside Flood Road east of Linden in the search for victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. KCRA 3 reported live from the site on day one. Shermantine is not heard.

In January 2013, the FBI began excavating an old well beside Flood Road east of Linden in the search for victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. KCRA 3 reported live from the site on day one. Shermantine is not heard.

Subject: Wesley Shermantine
Recorded: about 2013
Runtime: 2:58

Content warning: Concerns the search for the remains of murder victims; no graphic detail.

The Report

This is a 2-minute-58-second KCRA 3 news report from Sacramento, posted on the station's YouTube channel on January 8, 2013. Reporter Mike TeSelle reported live from beside Flood Road east of Linden as the FBI began work to excavate an old well that might hold the remains of victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. An FBI official, not named in the report, is heard from that morning's news conference, and an investigator is heard briefly in footage of a September 2012 site survey. Shermantine and Herzog are not heard.

Historical Context

Shermantine was convicted in 2001 of four murders and sentenced to death; Herzog died by suicide in January 2012. In early 2012 Shermantine drew maps that led San Joaquin County Sheriff's investigators to remains in Calaveras County and in a well on Flood Road near Linden, where the remains of Joann Hobson and Kimberly Billy were identified. In November 2012 Sheriff Steve Moore asked the FBI to take on a further search.

Circumstances

The FBI announced the excavation in early January 2013. On January 8, 2013, CBS reported Herbert Brown, special agent in charge of the FBI's Sacramento office, as saying, "We all remain hopeful that our efforts at this site will ultimately return the remains of victims to their loved ones." Heavy machinery was to be used first, followed by hand digging with anthropologists from CSU Chico. KCRA's report was made on the first day of preparations at the site.

What the Report Covers

The anchors say the FBI is now in charge of the digging. The reporter says the site is the same spot where federal investigators and KCRA stood in a site survey, and that an excavator was moving dirt around "an old, closed private-property well." He says FBI investigators cited a "combination of factors," including Shermantine's visit to the area the year before. The FBI official says, "I will admit Shermantine is one of them," but that relying only on "a statement of a convicted killer" is "a perilous path." The reporter says the FBI described a slow, methodical process of two to three weeks, not tied to any specific victim, and trails the FBI's comment that it would use a different strategy from the sheriff's 2012 search.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The report records the start of the last major search for victims of the pair, and the FBI's public caution about relying on Shermantine's information.

Archival Importance

A KCRA 3 news report on the station's own channel. It follows KCRA's coverage of the 2012 sheriff's search of the first Linden well. The FBI ended this search on February 22, 2013, without finding remains.

Important Caveats

Shermantine and Herzog are not heard. The FBI official and the investigator are not named in the report; whether the official is Herbert Brown is not established. The reporter's reference to Shermantine's "visit to this area last year" fits Wikipedia's account that he was briefly taken from death row in September 2012 to point out four wells near Linden. No captions exist, so the transcript rests on machine passes only. The search described here later found no remains (later fact, not in the video).

Anchor: New clues, new information, and a new search. Investigators are back out at the San Joaquin County field, searching for murder victims of Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine. But this time, the FBI is in charge of this digging.

Anchor: And here's a live look for you right now from overhead. LiveCopter 3 still watching the scene here as the heavy machinery continues to work tonight. The work's still underway there. Again, it's digging taking place in the small San Joaquin County town of Linden. KCRA 3's Mike TeSelle has been in Linden all day. So, Mike, what have you been learning out there today?

Mike Teselle: Well, for starters, I can tell you that this search site right here, we've learned that this spot is the exact same spot federal investigators and even KCRA 3 were standing on not long ago. It is that spot right there, where those excavators are working near that mound of dirt, which is right next to Flood Road east of Linden. LiveCopter 3 was overhead not long after the FBI began this latest excavation process. An excavator began moving dirt around an old, closed private-property well that may contain the human remains that were the victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. So why here, and why now? During the news conference held this morning, FBI investigators say a, quote, "combination of factors" led them here. And yes, Wesley Shermantine's visit to this area last year was one of, but not the only, factors.

Fbi Official: I will admit Shermantine is one of them. But I will tell you this: that if you rely on a statement of a convicted killer, and only use that information only, that is a perilous path that you take. [Wording from the second machine pass; Whisper: "if you were alive on a statement".]

Mike Teselle: To confirm Shermantine's report that bodies may have been dumped here, the FBI said it conducted this site survey at this exact spot back in September. KCRA 3 was here to witness as investigators used rakes at that time to examine the area around this 50-foot-deep well.

Investigator: This seems the most probable well that we possibly can find human remains.

Mike Teselle: And back here live: day one of the preparations to begin digging down to that well still underway. This an aerial view, and a view from on the ground. The FBI says it will be a two-to-three-week, slow, methodical process to try and get to what could be potential human remains. But they say this is not tied to any specific victims that they believe may be here. Instead, they say this is a search of any human remains possibly tied to Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. But aside from the investigation, the FBI also made an interesting comment about the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department search earlier this year, and how they are going to do something that they say the Sheriff's Department didn't do: a different strategy. Hear what their comment was, coming up tonight at 6, right here on KCRA 3. Live east of Linden, I'm Mike TeSelle, back to you. (second machine pass, from "Hear what")

Anchor: We look forward to that part of the story. [02:58: speech ends with the clip.] ---