Grand Jury to Convene in Probe of Yosemite Tourist Killings
SACRAMENTO — Federal authorities decided Tuesday to convene a grand jury to question reluctant witnesses who may have information about last month’s abduction and slaying of three Yosemite sightseers.
The grand jury will be based in Fresno and is expected to begin calling witnesses next week in connection with the killing of Eureka resident Carole Sund, her teenage daughter and a teenage friend from Argentina.
FBI spokesman Nick Rossi characterized the move as “one more investigative tool to gather information” and emphasized that the decision “does not signal that charges are imminent.”
Officials from the U.S. attorney’s office in Fresno, prosecutors from Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties, the Tuolumne County sheriff and the FBI met Tuesday to make the final decision to convene the grand jury.
Sund, 42, her daughter, Juliana, 15, and friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, vanished in mid-February.
The mother’s remains were found March 18 in Tuolumne County in her burned rental car. Investigators say they believe that a second body found in the car was Silvina’s. Juliana’s body was discovered Thursday along the road to Yosemite.
No arrests have been made, but five men detained in recent weeks on other charges or parole violations are under scrutiny.
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