Oct 6, 2008 12:22 pm US/Pacific
LAPD Begins Dig To Find Boy Murdered In 1968
Moorpark, CA (CBS) ―
At 10AM Monday morning, backhoe operators working with LAPD investigators started digging at two places along the 23 Freeway near Moorpark, looking for the remains of a teenager missing for almost 40 years.
Roger Dale Madison disappeared in December of 1968. Years later, a serial killer admitted that Madison was one of his victims.
The killer, Mack Ray Edwards, worked in 1968 as a heavy equipment operator building the 23 freeway. After he was caught, he confessed he had buried Madison's body under a work site beside the freeway. Edwards later committed suicide on death row in San Quentin. He has since been linked to as many as 18 kidnappings and murders during the 50's and 60's.
A writer researching a book on Edwards alerted LAPD detectives to the cold case. They then got a break when a retired construction supervisor gave them a detailed work calendar he kept when the freeway was being built. That gave the detectives enough information to narrow the potential burial sites down to just two. The locations came up positive when checked with cadaver dogs and a scientific instrument that can detect chemicals given off by decomposing bodies.
The digging could continue for another five to ten days, possibly causing detours and delays at the Tierra Rejada Rd/CA 23 junction.
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