The excavation of part of a landfill in Castaic in search of the remains of a woman who disappeared two months ago from downtown LA was expected to resume next week, following delays caused by heavy rains and other logistics issues.
Heidi Planck, 39, was last seen on security video with her dog near a high-rise apartment building at 12th and Hope streets Oct. 17, and the LAPD said it appeared she died soon after the video recording was made during an unspecified incident inside the building.
Detectives from the Robbery Homicide Division obtained a search warrant for the landfill and began to unearth and search through trash Nov. 29 using excavators, heavy machinery, and hand tools.
Several law enforcement sources told NBC4's I-Team that nothing significant had been found to date, and relayed that some investigators -- who've spent day after day raking through tons of trash and debris -- were growing worried they'd missed an important clue.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
The search effort was paused when heavy rains moved through Southern California in late December.
One of the excavators brought to the site broke down days into the search and was being replaced before the search resumed.
Planck was last seen in person in Downey at one of her son's football games hours before the security video was recorded in downtown. Another video clip made public by the LAPD showed Planck leaving her home in West Los Angeles with her dog earlier the same day.
News
Top news of the day
Planck's ex-husband said she left the football game around halftime and he said she appeared to be a little edgy and antsy.
Planck failed to pick up her son from school on Oct. 20 and the ex-husband, Jim Wayne, said he called the LAPD and made a missing persons report.
Wayne said Planck's dog was found on the 28th floor of the downtown LA building, but said he doesn't know how the dog got into the building and didn't think Planck knew anyone who lived there.
He told reporters in late November that he’s been told there are several individuals who know what happened to Planck, and he pleaded with them to contact investigators – for the benefit of the couple's 11-year-old son.
"We need some answers, but we know for sure that there are some people that are not coming forward, that know the, know the truth," Wayne said.
