Police excavate car from yard of California home once owned by criminal

Police in California have excavated a Mercedes Benz car found buried on a property formerly owned by a man once convicted of murder and other serious crimes, investigators confirmed.

Cadaver dogs also detected a "slight notification of possible human remains," although none have been found so far, police in Atherton, Calif., said in a statement issued late Friday.

Excavation work on the large, $15 million estate is continuing with drones and heavy equipment, police said.

"It could be human remains," Atherton Police Commander Dan Larsen told reporters. "They (dogs) could be reacting to blood. They could be reacting to old bones. They could be reacting to human vomit.

"It could be any one of those combinations of things that the dogs are reacting to," he said.

The Mercedes convertible was reported stolen to Palo Alto, Calif., police in 1992. It was buried four to five feet deep and found with bags of unused cement inside. Police believe it was buried at some point in the 1990s.

The vehicle was buried before the current homeowner occupied the home and police believe its owner is deceased.

The 12,000-square-foot home was built by Johnny Lew in the early 1990s. Lew, who emigrated from Hong Kong in 1959, was convicted of murder in the 1965 shooting death of his mistress, Karen Gervasi. That conviction was overturned in 1968 on a technicality.

He also served three years in prison after being found guilty in late 1967 of the attempted murder of two men.

In addition, Lew was arrested for insurance fraud in the late 1990s. At the time, he was accused of trying to hire men to sink his $1.2 million yacht. Lew unknowingly hired undercover agents to carry out the plot, resulting in his arrest.

"My father definitely had emotional issues. This wouldn't surprise me, just based on how sketchy my father was," Lew's daughter, Jacq Searle, told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview.

Police have avoided making the link between Lew and the car as the investigation continues.

Lew died from lung cancer in 2015 while living in Washington state.