Police dig for solution to 1986 mystery

HOMESTEAD, Fla., July 10 (UPI) -- Police began digging Tuesday at a house in Homestead, Fla., south of Miami, for the body of a young woman who disappeared in 1986.

Miami-Dade police took a backhoe to the house after a cadaver-sniffing dog supplied by a missing persons group based in Wilmington, N.C., detected human remains there Monday, the Miami Herald reported.

Sheri Lynn Swims, a 23-year-old waitress and mother of a 6-month-old boy, was last seen Aug. 19, 1986. She left the DoubleHeader Bar and Grill in Homestead with a man an informant said lived in the house in the Redlands district while it was under construction.

The Herald learned of the informant's story as part of an investigation into the use of secret and altered docket numbers to hide cases in Dade and Broward counties. Police reportedly concealed Michael Scott Segal's informant status.

Segal reportedly said that a man might be buried on the property as well, the newspaper said.