Digging operation seen in front of Taunton house

August 24, 2017 11:20 pm

By: John Krinjak

Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com

Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6

TAUNTON, M.A. (WLNE) — Neighbors are scratching their heads on Thursday after witnessing Taunton and Massachusetts State Police searching this front yard for nearly 12 hours-apparently looking for something that may have been buried.

All of a sudden we start seeing more police, more cars coming. And then in the afternoon they came with like a bulldozer," Manuel Valadao who lives across the street.

A bulldozer dug up a large tree and much of the grass and dirt near the corner of Ashleigh Terrace and Bryan Drive before filling it all back in.

A K-9 unit was seen searching the yard as well, but didn’t appear to remove anything from the site.

"I’ve never seen anything like this going on," said neighbor Scott Rodrigues.

"The neighborhood is so quiet, so I never think anything bad, but you wonder why," said another neighbor Kim Tran.

But other neighbors are wondering if this could have something to do with a missing persons’ case from years ago.

"People are speculating, start thinking about like an old case," said Manuel Valadao.

"Disheartening. I mean you’d hate to think that anything like that would happen in the area,” said Scott Rodrigues.

A State Police spokesperson would only comment that the digging operation is part of an ongoing investigation.

Police cleared the scene around 7:00 p.m., Thursday evening, with no word on whether they’ll be doing any more searching in the area.

The owners of the home on that property declined to speak to ABC6 News, but neighbors say they’ve only lived there for about a year and a half.

A spokesperson for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said released a statement Thursday evening saying: "It’s part of an ongoing investigation, and we do not comment on pending investigations."

No further information is available at this time.