EDITORS NOTE: A Page Museum employee confirmed this morning that LAPD “found what they were looking for.”
StarLine tourists got their price-of-admission Thursday morning when their bus happened upon an LAPD scuba-diver out in the ancient La Brea Tar Pits in search of a murder weapon. LAPD Public Information Officer Lt. Andrew Neiman stated for the record only that the police department is part of a joint task force assisting in an ongoing homicide investigation, using their dive team to search for a possible ”item of evidence.” However a Fire Department staffer let it slip earlier that they were looking for a murder weapon .
Neiman would not comment on whether police have a suspect in custody or what led them to search in the Tar Pits. KTLA reported that the search was related to a 2011 cold case murder. The lone diver, who was assisted by Fire Engine ladders in steadying the boat, appears to have come up empty handed after an approximately three hour search of the south end of the lake along Wilshire Blvd. Firemen brushed and hosed off the diver’s oily wetsuit after he emerged, as the media and helicopters circled overhead. The KTLA news video interviewing the LAPD diver is included below.
In January, Page Museum staff were out in the lake trying to right one of the mammoths which had tipped over and lost its moorings. Other things lost in the Tar Pits have included cattle, stray dogs, squirrels and Mare Winningham and Anthony Edwards’ hearts in the cult film “Miracle Mile.”
Larchmont Buzz: Digging in the La Brea Tar Pits on Wilshire