Backyard Body Recovery Halted Until Friday

Investigators need to wait until Friday to remove a body found buried in a Novato backyard on Wednesday night, police said.

Captain Jim Berg said shoring of the hole being dug at 4 Rebecca Way needs to be done overnight for the safety of workers and to preserve the remains as they are brought up to the surface. He said an additional few inches or a foot needs to be dug around the perimeter of the 4-foot-deep hole to assure the body can be as intact as possible on removal.

The decision to wait was made late in the afternoon as intermittent rain fell in the quiet neighborhood on Novato’s east side. The recovery team — including Novato detectives, FBI forensics experts and the Marin County Urban Search and Rescue Team — worked under a tarp to stay out of the rain, but Berg said the weather and unstable ground contributed to the decision to hold off until Friday to bring out the body.

The remains were found at the home of Dale and Evelyn Smith after a neighbor contacted police Feb. 9 to ask for a welfare check on Dale Smith, a 74-year-old retired carpenter who had not been seen in the neighborhood for several months.

Novato police Lt. John McCarthy said earlier Thursday that the body buried beneath a recently built brick patio will be identified by the Marin County Sheriff/Coroner's Office as well as a cause of death, but "we suspect it's him," McCarthy said.

Police received permission from Evelyn Smith and her attorney that day to enter the premises and start an investigation. Police served a search warrant Thursday and began to search inside the house, Berg said.

On Tuesday, the police requested assistance from the California Office of Emergency Services for the use of cadaver dogs. Berg said the results proved inconclusive and a call to the San Francisco-based FBI Evidence Recovery Team was made.

Berg said Novato police asked for mutual aid to tap into expertise and special gear that most local police departments don’t have.

“It’s Novato police’s investigation, but we requested the FBI’s assistance because of the recovery team has the skills and training in how to investigation this kind of situation,” Berg said. “We don’t necessarily have the tools, training and experience for these circumstances. … We would be out here much longer if we were doing it ourselves. We’d probably have to go out and purchase equipment and have people out here to give us advice. This is what mutual aid is all about. There have been many cases when we have helped other agencies as well.”

Berg said Evelyn Smith is “accessible to us through her attorneys,” but that further questioning won’t be done until after the body is exhumed. Earlier, police described Evelyn Smith as a “person of interest” because an explanation she gave on her husband’s whereabouts did not prove to be true, Berg said.

“We have to take care of A before we get to B,” he said. “They’ve been cooperative in that regard. They gave us a key to the house so we could move forward with our investigation, but she’s not making additional statements to us at this time on advice of her attorney.”

The search and rescue team was brought in because of its experience removing people — both alive and deceased — from precarious places, Berg said.