DETROIT – A cold case team investigating the disappearance of a Lansing-area woman last seen in Livingston County 21 years ago have gotten a positive response from cadaver dogs.
Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said the response Thursday came from property on the 7700 block of West Sober Road, about 10 miles north of Fowlerville. He said the dogs' responses mean human remains are possible, but there has been no confirmation that they belong to Renkoski. The area has been roped off and a stake in the ground represents the spot where investigators will dig deeper.
Detective Mike Frayer is part of the cold case team and called the response from the dogs "extremely strong."
"They are trained to exhibit a specific behavior when they make a hit and they both exhibited the behaviors extremely strongly. We went over it with both dogs again and they both hit again," he said.
Frayer said the area had already been scanned with ground-penetrating radar in the summer, but nothing was found.
"We had been searching earlier east of here and then another area west of here. We decided that as long as we were here with the dogs, let's go over this area one time. We weren't in here 10 minutes and they exhibited the behavior," Frayer said.
Frayer said there are a lot of legal issues to get through before any ground can be unearthed. The property is privately owned.
"This would be a very sensitive excavation. It would be like an archeological dig, quite frankly," Frayer said. "This could be huge if it turns out to be what it might be. I want to be careful."
The 30-year-old Okemos woman was driving home from Detroit Metropolitan Airport when she disappeared in May 1990. Police have ruled the case a homicide even though her body hasn't been found.
Investigators have also already searched an area in Eaton County's Delta Township, near Lansing, following a tip from someone who recently learned information about the investigation into Renkoski's disappearance through media reports. Nothing was found during that search.