September 28, 2012
Newest search for Hoffa is under Michigan driveway
The Associated Press
People photograph a driveway in Roseville, Mich. that a tipster said could be the final resting place of missing Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. Authorities plan to take soil samples from under the driveway. Hoffa's mysterious disappearance, assumed death and myriad searches for his body have been the stuff of urban legends for more than three decades.
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ROSEVILLE, Mich. -- Michigan investigators plan to take soil samples from underneath a residential driveway Friday in the latest effort in a decades-long investigation to figure out where missing Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa may be buried.

Could this search be the one that solves the mystery? Don't get excited: Authorities have already said they don't think the timeline adds up and that it's unlikely Hoffa's body is there.

The latest investigation was launched after police in Roseville received a tip from a man who said he saw a body being buried underneath the driveway 35 years ago and "thinks it may have been Jimmy."

Hoffa was last seen July 30, 1975, outside a restaurant in Oakland County, more than 30 miles to the west.

Recently retired Detroit FBI chief Andrew Arena is among the doubters that the latest report will check out.

"You've got to check it out, but this doesn't sound right," he told the AP. "The working theories that have developed over the years, this really doesn't fit any of those. If this was the mob and they killed somebody, I just don't see them burying the body basically at the intersection of a residential neighborhood with this guy standing there."

The soil samples are set to be removed Friday morning and eventually tested for human decomposition. Results of the soil samples taken Friday are not expected before next week.

At the request of police, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality used ground-penetrating radar last week on the Roseville driveway. An anomaly, or shift, in the soil was detected.

Police Chief James Berlin said that his office is "not claiming it's Jimmy Hoffa" beneath the slab but that they are "investigating a body that may be at the location."

Feisty and iron-willed in contract talks, Hoffa was an acquaintance of mobsters and adversary to federal officials. He spent time in prison for jury tampering.

The day he disappeared, Hoffa was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit mafia captain. He was declared legally dead in 1982.

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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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