TRUCKEE, Calif., June 6 (UPI) -- Law enforcement officers Thursday resumed their excavation of the vacation home of a defrocked priest and accused child molester in the mountains of Northern California as they searched for possible remains of children who disappeared in the region over the years.
Police began digging up the yard of Stephen Kiesle's retreat in Truckee late Wednesday after cadaver-sniffing dogs alerted investigators to a number of spots where human remains might be buried, possibly including those of Amber Swartz, a girl who vanished from Kiesle's Bay Area neighborhood 14 years ago.
No signs of remains were reported when the searchers stopped for the night, and police cautioned that the keen-nosed canines might have alerted to animal bones.
The 55-year-old Kiesle has been free on bond for two weeks following his arrest on seven counts of child molestation that allegedly occurred between 1968 and 1971 when he was a priest at Santa Paula Church in Fremont, a city in the southeastern section of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The San Jose Mercury News said the Oakland Diocese defrocked Kiesle in 1978 after he pleaded no contest to charges he tied up two young boys. At the time, the offense was a misdemeanor and was expunged from his criminal record. He also was never placed on the master list of convicted sex offenders that police checked after Swartz disappeared 10 years later.
Kiesle continues to live in Pinole, where he is married and worked as a computer consultant until recently retiring, the Mercury News said.
Kiesle's arrest on May 20 took on new significance, however, when investigators working on the case discovered that he had lived in the same Pinole neighborhood as Amber, a 7-year-old who disappeared from her front yard in 1988 and was never seen again.
At the same time, two teenaged girls told police that Kiesle had sexually assaulted them at the Truckee residence in the mid-1990s.
"We took a look at Mr. Kiesle and found that the female victims were about the same age and description as Amber," Pinole Police Cmdr. John Miner told the Sacramento Bee on Wednesday. "We learned that some of the victims said they were molested at his house in Truckee. So we invited some specially trained 'cadaver' dogs up to the house, and they made some hits."
The Swartz girl's disappearance made national headlines in 1988, and Miner said cracking the case has always been a long-term goal of the Police Department.
"We always think it could be our missing Amber," said Miner. "That's always in the back of our minds."
Truckee police said a total of four cases of missing children were suspected of being linked to Kiesle, but there was no definite evidence tying him to their cases.
Miner said his department was being cautious about the possibility that the vexing Swartz case was close to being solved.
"We get leads periodically and fairly frequently in this case," he told the Bee. "There have been tens of thousands over the years. This is not the lead -- but it could be. It's not significant until we're finished with our dig; so far, we have nothing."
