The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 10

A-10 S.lurcUy, March 20, 1999 SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER News tesmnes Ewreta ddh grisf "ativ Jlii( i vpg? 0' 2 Siffi Cedar Cottage gift shop in Twain Harte. The owner, Penny Mann, says she EXAMINEROARRYL BUSH saw trw who disappeared come in. seta at the Bayview Mall, scouring the evening news for one more tidbit of information in the mystery that has gripped the city since mid-February. "It's just the three of us when we travel, too," Eureka resident Cheryl Lynch said, pointing to her two daughters, ages 17 and 15. "It's scary, and we don't go out of Humboldt County." At Ichabob's Billiards, bartender Lynne Miller said almost everyone around town has been talking about the discovery.

"I don't think it's really surprised them at this point," she said. "They expected bodies to be found." "It's been the topic for months," said pool player Keith Waldron. "But I don't know if many answers will ever come of it." Life went on Friday as the line of cars snaked up to the front gate of the Catherine L. Zane Junior High School for the regular basketball game. Kids chased each other on roller blades and parents sat quietly watching over their offspring.

"Actually, at this point, now we're able to come to some sort of closure," said Steve Wilson, who coached Julie Sund in soccer when she was in seventh grade. "She was filled with life and I remember her that way, rather than as a victim of crime." Deborah Downs, the controller at the Carrington the family business where Carole Sund worked, said employees chose to finish their work day after hearing the news. "At this point, we hope maybe the third one is alive," said Downs. "I just keep waiting for Carole to pop up at the top of the steps." And for the teenagers at Eureka High School, the disappearance and violence wrought confusion. "I don't really remember when I was little these things happening very much," said Jessica Herrera, a junior.

"They seem to be happening more and more now and I don't know what that means." Sunds' town struggles to deal with grim discovery By Pamela Martineau SCRPPS MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE EUREKA A sign in front of Eureka High School read, "Senior Class Night Postponed" a sign of the grief that tore through the student body after news of the discovery of two charred bodies in the trunk of Carole Sund's rental car. "Everyone's been holding each other and crying," said Eureka High School freshman Elisabeth Geretacker. "When everyone found out, it was just like a vacuum of silence. A lot of people went home." Carole Sund, 42, and her daugh- Suicide disrupts Caltrain service EXAMINER STAFF REPORT A 34-year-old man was killed instantly when he stepped in front of a southbound Caltrain at the Bayshore station, authorities said. The suicide Friday caused one-hour service delays in both directions during the evening rush-hour commute from San Francisco to San Jose, said Rita Haskin, the Caltrain spokeswoman.

The man's identity was withheld. A suicide note was left in an envelope with the man's satchel on the platform. The express train, No. 64, had just left The City and was heading into the station around 5 p.m. when the man stepped onto the tracks, turned his back to the train and looked skyward, said Haskin.

The train engineer blew his whistle and tried to stop, she said. But it takes a half-mile to stop the million-pound train, she said. The train was not scheduled to stop until South San Francisco. ter Julie Sund, 15, are of Eureka. Braced for the worst, but still holding out hope for a miracle, students were stunned, angry and scared Friday after hearing the news that bodies had been discovered in the trunk of the red 1999 Grand Prix that officials had been seeking for more than a month.

"It's scary," said student Linda Zarean. "Walking down the street, I feel very vulnerable. It's so dangerous out there." There was no formal announcement at the high school Friday when the bodies were discovered, but school officials, already prepared for the worst, pulled out a list of Julie Sund's and Silvina Pelos-so's closest friends and called them into the office one by one to tell them the news. "We told them," Principal Bob Embertson said. "Not all of them wanted to go home.

Some who were particularly stricken did. Others chose to stay and be with their friends and grieve." Many students at Eureka High School know grief all too well, having last Christmas lost a fellow student to suicide. In 1997, junior Karen Mitchell disappeared from a city street the week of Thanksgiving. Despite an intensive search by the FBI, no sign of the young woman has been discovered. "In the last 16 months, this is kids 2 and 3," Embertson said of the trauma of helping his campus of 1,850 students deal with classmates' grief.

"The students are angry because (Mitchell's disappearance) didn't get that kind of media coverage," said school counselor Cherie Zygaczenko. "They're wondering why." Zygaczenko and counselors from other schools were brought in to be with students throughout the day. Sorrow rippled throughout this North Coast town of 27,000 Friday. Citizens stood in front of television ALL MISSING from A-1 Did FBI ignore key leads in case? where the sightings had been reported and ignored. Officials were unable to determine the identity of the bodies, but they believe they are two of the missing sightseers.

Tuolumne County coroner's officials said they would use dental records and DNA samples to determine the identities of the two victims, Rossi said. The torched 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix, rented by Carole Sund, 42, for the trip, was spotted by a passerby Thursday afternoon 100 yards off Highway 108 near Dodge Ridge Ski Resort, between Sierra Village and Long Barn near Sonora. The location in the gold country is about a three-hour drive from the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, where the three were last seen. Rel- atives said that the area is not a normal route during family trips to Yosemite. During the five weeks since the three sightseers were reported missing, Rossi said the investigators received more than 3,000 tips.

He said that agents acted on the most reliable information they had. "It has been impossible with the volume of tips to give every one of them personal attention," Rossi said. "Not all of them can be right." One of the tipsters, Penny Mann of Twain Harte, just miles from where the car was found, said she called the FBI hot line twice in the weeks after the women were reported missing. She said she spoke once with an official, but was never called back. Mann told the agent that she had seen the missing tourists when they came into her gift shop on Feb.

16, one day after their disappearance. Mann said she tried calling the FBI hot line when she learned about the missing trio from news reports about a week after their disappearance. The hot line number was busy, she said, and she gave up. She waited until March 14 and then decided to call Tuolumne County sheriffs officials, who gave her a different FBI number that worked, she said. "I was interviewed by a woman and I gave her a description of the people I saw," Mann said.

"She thanked me and said they would look into it, but I never heard back." Off IK Every sofa, sofabed, sectional, chair, table lamp on sale this week! rniture! Rossi explained that although the case is considered high profile, there was typically just one person in the Modesto command center fielding calls off the hot line, sometimes two or three if there were new developments. Spillover calls went into voicemail, where they were received by agents and staff at the FBI offices in Sacramento and transcribed for agents in Modesto, Rossi said. With Friday's discovery, Rossi said the FBI will now intensify its effort in the area and vigorously pursue interviews with Guthmiller, Mann and whoever else comes forward with information about the victims. Rossi said while it was useless to second-guess the FBI's efforts, he was sorry if tipsters felt they had been ignored. "We've got to prioritize these things and we did that with the reliable sightings," Rossi said.

"I apologize on behalf of the agency to anyone who didn't get a call back." Meanwhile, residents of the Sierra Village and Long Barn areas were stunned by the new developments in the case. "Tuolumne County has become a kind of dumping ground for some bad people," said Everett Beasley, a retired Baptist minister from Sonora. "This one is really mysterious." John Luczy, a dirt biker who knows the roads around Highway 108 well, said he was surprised that the passerby who saw the car even bothered to alert authorities because people often discard unwanted appliances, junk and sometimes vehicles. "I've ridden all over out there and people dump stuff all the time," Luczy said. "But you never think to call people to tell them that." Lab set up at scene As for the crime scene itself, an entire laboratory was set up at the scene Friday, even as the weather became threatening with clouds and the chance of rain.

The Tuolumne County sheriffs office has taken over the investigation and will work with the FBI. Other agencies involved in the investigation include the U.S. Forest Service, the California Department of Forestry, officials from Mariposa and Tuolumne counties and arson investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Truck transporting dimes crashes; 2 die ASSOCIATED PRESS GORE, Okla. A tractor-trailer carrying 8 million newly minted dimes ran off Interstate 40 early Friday and burst into flames.

Two people were killed. The $800,000 in dimes lay scattered around the wreckage of the truck, which investigators said was traveling from Denver to the Federal Reserve Bank in Little Rock, Ark. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Jack Rosenberg said the accident had happened at about 6:30 a.m. when the American Armored Transport truck veered off the road, hit an embankment and went airborne before striking a second embankment, killing the driver and a passenger.

Troopers believe the driver fell asleep. -'V. i if I )' sip! 'i A ft crafted SAVE $364 WINGATE sofa SALE $1,093" fringe accents SALE $749" in Custom Crafted fu Never called back Rossi confirmed that FBI agents in Sacramento transcribed Mann's March 14 call and were planning to call her back the following day but never did. Other tips from Twaine Harte, Rossi said, came from a psychic who said she had a feeling the women were in the area and a person who claimed to have seen on March 5 a vehicle matching the missing trio's red Pontiac Grand Prix. Rossi doubted the legitimacy of the latter call because investigators believe the car had been torched and left in the location off Highway 108 long before the tip came in.

"It's safe to say that car was not out and driving on March 5," Rossi said. Rossi said there was no record in the FBI database from Louise Guthmiller, the owner of a Chevron station in Sierra Village along Highway 108, who also claimed she saw the trio on Feb. 16. Guthmiller told The Examiner that she sold the sightseers gas and had a brief conversation with Pe-losso while the girl purchased snacks from the station. After the three were reported missing, Guthmiller said she told two Tuolumne County sheriffs deputies the story but they appeared to show no interest, never bothering to take a report.

Sheriffs Lt. John Hill said Thursday night that he would look into Guthmiller'8 claims to learn whether the two deputies failed to report the incident to their superiors or the FBI. He did not return calls seeking comment on Friday. Line busy Both Guthmiller and Mann said they had considerable trouble getting through to the FBI on its hot line because the number was consistently busy. SAVE $237 AUSTIN sofa SALE $7 1 2" AS SHOWN with fabric upgrades reg.

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