The Santa Barbara Police Department has scaled down the search effort for the remains of 7-year-old Ramona Price, who disappeared on Sept. 2, 1961.
Authorities have been working under the theory that serial killer Mac Ray Edwards could have murdered the girl and buried her at the Hollister Avenue overpass construction site, where he reportedly worked.
According to Lt. Paul McCaffrey, the initial “places of interest” near the Hollister Avenue overpass have been searched with no new evidence that Price was buried in the vicinity. Cadaver dogs first alerted handlers to the possible presence of humans remains on June 15.
“The dogs still seem to alert in the area,” McCaffrey said, but without locating the remains it’s impossible for authorities to determine whether its Price’s body.
“Unfortunately, we live in a world where people get killed and are buried in shallow graves and lay there undisturbed for some time,” he continued. “It could be someone who has been there for 100 years or more, or it could be a Native American burial site.”
About four years ago, author Weston DeWalt contacted the police department to tell officers he was working on a project analyzing convicted child molester Edwards, and that the circumstances surrounding Price’s disappearance were consistent with Edwards’ other murders.
After his arrest in 1970, Edwards admitted to kidnapping and killing six children from 1953 to 1968. In most of those cases, he confessed to having used his heavy equipment operator skills to dig holes at freeway construction sites, where he would bury his victims. Edwards hanged himself in his cell at San Quentin prison in 1971.
Santa Barbara Police Department’s Lt. McCaffrey said the department is no longer directing the search effort. Caltrans, however, is continuing with its planned work to tear out the remaining portions of the overpass. Some of construction work is adjacent to the original search area. A single detective will remain on scene to check for possible evidence.
Currently, the only component left of the overpass is its concrete footings.
McCaffrey said he doesn’t think Price is buried under the footings because construction records show they were built well before Price disappeared. Still, McCaffrey said the department is determined to solve the case.
“We knew from the beginning that this was something we wanted to see through to the conclusion,” he said. “It’s not something where we wanted to look back and say, ‘If only we’d had a little more time or we’d been a little more thorough.’”
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 7, 2011.