Investigators end dig at boyhood home of suspect in missing girls' case
By Michele Linck, Journal staff writer | Posted: Friday, November 19, 2004
NORA, S.D. -- Authorities said late Thursday they have finished a second round of digging at a Union County farm where they were hoping to unearth evidence related to the disappearance 33 years ago of Cheryl Miller and Pamela Jackson.
The girls, from Vermillion, S.D., were 17 when they and the 1960 Studebaker they were driving disappeared on May 29, 1971.
Thursday marked the third day of digging at the childhood home of David Lee Lykken, about 15 miles south of Beresford, S.D. Union County Sheriff Dan Limoges said that investigators had found "some items" that they would likely take out to determine whether they are related to the case.
Limoges would not specify what the items were. He cautioned that 30 years ago farm families buried "everything and anything." He said he thought Thursday's dig had probably included a former outhouse site. He said the items taken this week will be listed on the search warrant when it is filed at the courthouse.
Limoges said he thinks the case can, and will, be solved; but no one knows when. He said new information is coming out and that all tips to his office and the Clay County Sheriff's Office are being forwarded to the Cold Case Unit.
About 15 investigators with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, its new Cold Case Unit, and the Union and Clay counties' sheriffs offices, worked the farm site Thursday. They used a backhoe to dig large holes, then used shovels to sort through the soil.
On Tuesday they had used a ground-penetrating radar to get images from beneath the soil and to stake out a grid. The grid was in an outdoor area near a green metal shed in which they had found some items during a search of the farm in August.
Although South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long said earlier that Lykken is not a suspect, Lykken's name was listed as the defendant on the search warrant executed in August. That search netted bone fragments, photographs, a red purse, rubber gloves and clothing. The DCI is not releasing the results of lab testing on those items.
Lykken was 16 years old when the girls vanished on their way to a party not far from the farm. Now 50, he is serving a 227-year prison sentence for an unrelated rape, kidnapping and burglary.
The girls, from Vermillion, S.D., were 17 when they and the 1960 Studebaker they were driving disappeared on May 29, 1971.
Thursday marked the third day of digging at the childhood home of David Lee Lykken, about 15 miles south of Beresford, S.D. Union County Sheriff Dan Limoges said that investigators had found "some items" that they would likely take out to determine whether they are related to the case.
Limoges would not specify what the items were. He cautioned that 30 years ago farm families buried "everything and anything." He said he thought Thursday's dig had probably included a former outhouse site. He said the items taken this week will be listed on the search warrant when it is filed at the courthouse.
Limoges said he thinks the case can, and will, be solved; but no one knows when. He said new information is coming out and that all tips to his office and the Clay County Sheriff's Office are being forwarded to the Cold Case Unit.
About 15 investigators with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, its new Cold Case Unit, and the Union and Clay counties' sheriffs offices, worked the farm site Thursday. They used a backhoe to dig large holes, then used shovels to sort through the soil.
On Tuesday they had used a ground-penetrating radar to get images from beneath the soil and to stake out a grid. The grid was in an outdoor area near a green metal shed in which they had found some items during a search of the farm in August.
Although South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long said earlier that Lykken is not a suspect, Lykken's name was listed as the defendant on the search warrant executed in August. That search netted bone fragments, photographs, a red purse, rubber gloves and clothing. The DCI is not releasing the results of lab testing on those items.
Lykken was 16 years old when the girls vanished on their way to a party not far from the farm. Now 50, he is serving a 227-year prison sentence for an unrelated rape, kidnapping and burglary.
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