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Michigan Officials Dig for Hoffa Evidence

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Nearly 28 years after ex-Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, law enforcement officials dug into the ground outside a home Wednesday to search for evidence, a prosecutor said.

Authorities from Oakland County were acting on a search warrant obtained Tuesday, county prosecutor David Gorcyca said.

The search warrant was executed Wednesday morning, but authorities ran into "complications because of an above-ground pool over the dig sight," Gorcyca said. They were still digging in the early afternoon.

"We have some information that's come to us from a prisoner that's related to the Hoffa case," county Sheriff Michael Bouchard told the Detroit Free Press from the home's back yard.

He said the prisoner provided the information in the past few days, and "we're skeptical, but feel we need to check it out." He added that the prisoner had provided credible information on other cases.

Hampton Township is located a few miles northeast of Bay City, which is 115 miles north of Detroit near Michigan's Thumb.

Hoffa vanished on the afternoon of July 30, 1975, from a parking lot in a Detroit suburb. He was on his way to a meeting with Anthony Provenzano, a New Jersey Teamsters boss, and Anthony Giacalone, a Detroit Mafia captain.

Investigators believe Provenzano and Giacalone had Hoffa killed to prevent him from regaining the union presidency after he served time in federal prison for jury tampering.

On the day he disappeared, authorities believe Hoffa climbed into a Mercury driven by family friend Chuckie O'Brien, was driven somewhere, killed and had his body disposed of.

O'Brien claims he was running errands when Hoffa disappeared. He has denied any involvement in the disappearance and investigators have yet to link him to it.

Last August, Gorcyca had said no state criminal charges would be filed and only a deathbed confession or cooperation of a witness would solve the mystery.

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