The Los Angeles Police Department on Monday began searching a California landfill for evidence connected to the disappearance of Heidi Planck, a 39-year-old mother who is believed to have been killed in October after attending her son’s football game.
In a press release, the LAPD said they were looking in “a specific area” of the landfill for human remains. Police say there is still no lead on a suspect in what they believe is a robbery-homicide case.
“Dateline” reported that Planck’s mysterious disappearance had investigators searching for clues in downtown Los Angeles, where her dog was found on Oct. 17 — three hours after Planck was last seen — wandering on the 28th floor of a well-secured luxury building.
Planck’s ex-husband, Jim Wayne, said he doesn’t know how the dog got into the building and doesn’t believe Planck knew anyone in the building, NBC Los Angeles reported.
“Forensic evidence was located inside the building which has led detectives to believe an incident occurred resulting in Planck’s death,” the LAPD said.
Planck was first reported missing Oct. 20, and the case was transferred to LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide investigators on Oct. 29. Planck’s vehicle was found abandoned in a nearby parking garage on Nov. 4.
Police said their investigation has led them to the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, about 40 miles northwest of the downtown location where Planck was last seen.
LAPD said the excavation operation is expected to take over a week and warned of a potential “impact on community members who live around the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, specifically the community of Val Verde.”
“Efforts are being made to minimize and mitigate that impact. We ask for the community’s understanding and support during this search and recovery effort.”
LAPD asked for tips from anyone who was at the residential building at 1201 S. Hope, listed online as the Level Downtown Flower building, on or around Oct. 17, 2021.
Nov. 3, 202102:56
According to a “Dateline,” Wayne said Planck left their son’s football game at halftime that day behaving “edgy.”
“She was a little bit antsy, yes. I don’t know why,” he said. “All I know is that was the last time I saw her or talked to her.”
Planck then failed to pick their son up from school on Oct. 20, and Wayne filed a missing persons report shortly after that.
“She’s a devoted mother who would never, ever leave her son,” Wayne told Dateline. “We have a 10-year-old boy at home that’s looking for his mom and we just need to find her.”
Video obtained by NBC Los Angeles and broadcast on Nov. 12 showed Planck walking downtown on Oct. 17 with her dog on a leash, hours after she had previously last been seen on security footage leaving her west L.A. home.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
