In the Eastern Sierra many have heard of retired Mammoth Police Detective Paul Dostie and his cadaver dog Buster. Friday night, the greater Los Angeles area met them and heard that Buster may have uncovered clues about the infamous and unsolved 1947 murder of a woman known as the Black Dahlia.
The KNBC 11 o’clock news featured an exclusive story from reporter Patrick Healy. He told of retired Los Angeles Police Detective Steve Hodel who believes his father, prominent surgeon George Hodel, killed the Black Dahlia in 1947. Hodel told Channel 4 that he is “wired to search for truth.” The story went back to a Hollywood mansion where Hodel’s family lived and his suspicion that his father 
killed 22-year-old Elizabeth Short in that house.
Ten years ago, Hodel wrote a New York Times bestseller called “Black Dahlia Avenger”. In 2012, he met retired Sergeant Dostie and Buster. He invited them to the mansion. The KNBC story showed the two men and Buster who the report said alerted on four different locations in the basement of the mansion and upslope from the home. The soil in these areas will now be analyzed in a laboratory. Buster is trained to sniff out human remains.
In the Channel 4 story, Dostie said, “What Buster is 
telling us is that we have a pretty solid decompositional signal.” Did Buster sniff out the remains of the Black Dahlia? Lab results will answer that possibility.
KNBC revealed another finding when they said the District Attorney’s office unsealed Black Dahlia files in which a transcript of a recorded bugging of Dr. Hodel’s home said the sound of blows and screams could be heard and that Dr. Hodel said, “Suppose I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn’t prove it now.” Reporter Healy said Dr. Hodel had fled to Asia in 1950.
66 years ago, someone cut Elizabeth Short’s body in half and left her remains on LA streets. Detective Hodel was 7-years-old at the time. Friday night he told KNBC that he won’t give up until “the whole world recognizes the truth of this.”
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George Hodel may not have been an attractive character, but he was only one of 25 suspects in a sensational case that saw 60 people falsely confess to being the Black Dahlia killer. One of the LAPD investigators commented that “it is amazing how many people offer up a relative as the killer” and sure enough here comes Steve Hodel, a retired cop and now crime author with an obvious financial motive to “solve” this case by fingering dear old dad, who evidently was an odious man apart from whether he killed Elizabeth. Buster may have been alerting to human remains but given Dr. Hodel’s unsavory character it could have been those of someone other than the Black Dahlia, whose body lies buried in a marked grave in L.A.
…..AND not only is the ranch burnt down,but the Golar Wash road getting there has been severely damaged due to a flood…only passable with a very high-profile four-wheel drive vehicle.
….I went out to the Barker Ranch AFTER the Inyo County crew were there..and matching up the news photos of where they dug,Mr.Dostie is probably right about not deep enough.The reports back in the 60’s were saying 6 feet deep…The recent search and dig was about 2 to 3 feet….now the Ranch is burnt down…except for concrete and rocks.
Wayne … I can’t see any of those wacked out-of-their heads, lazy-ass, long-haired, dope smokin’ , non-bathing, devil worshipping worthless pieces of dog excrement digging a hole
6 feet deep in that hard as concrete, boulder strewn canyon. Just Sayin’ …
Big Rick….In that canyon about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile behind the ranch,where the old green pick-up truck is buried up to the frame,the ground is actually very sandy and would be easy to dig…but in an area that large,and over 40 years ago now,we’re never gonna know….
Wasn’t this the same guy that said his dogs found more bodies at Charlie Manson’s place?
Through investigation and discussions with sources, Dostie believed it was worth checking Barker Ranch
for more bodies Manson and company may have buried. There were no findings, but Dostie believes the crews did not dig deep enough.
BK
Paul Dostie and Buster are the same “team” that alerted to possible remains dating back to the 60’s out in Death Valley at the Barker Ranch a few years back,pertaining to the Manson family.But during an Inyo County Sheriff’s search of the area,along with Dostie and Buster, nothing found……makes you wonder…I’m sure the ISO would love to go back out there and dig around some more.