The Wilseyville cabin and bunker
On Monday, June 3, 1985, two detectives from S.F. Missing Persons, Tom Eisenmann and Irene Brunn, went to interview Balasz. When asked about the Wilseyville address, Balasz told the police that it related to a cabin that her father owned near San Andreas, Calaveras County. When the detectives asked for directions to the cabin, Balasz explained that it was in a remote location and could only be found by someone familiar with the area. The detectives then made arrangements for Balasz to take them to the cabin the following day, as they first required authorisation from the Calaveras Sheriffs Department to conduct a search.
The following day, after meeting with Sheriff Ballard and obtaining the necessary clearance, Eisenmann, Brunn and two other officers supplied by Ballard, met Balasz and Lake's mother Gloria Eberling at a grocery store located on Highway 88 a short distance from the cabin. When the detectives asked Balasz why she was late for their appointment, she explained that she had been to the cabin prior to meeting them. The police then advised her that if she had removed any evidence she could be found guilty of obstructing justice. Balasz explained that she had been looking for videos that Lake had taken of her in the nude and had only wanted to save herself from embarrassment.
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The Wilseyville cabin and bunker |
Shortly after, Balasz led them up Blue Mountain road and after just two turns, they drove past a cinder-block structure and came to the cabin. Contrary to Balasz's advice it had been relatively easy to find. After asking Balasz to unlock the cabin, Brunn and Calaveras Deputy Sheriff Varain conducted a search of the interior while Eisenmann and the other deputy looked around the grounds. |
The cabin was comprised of two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. The first thing that Brunn noticed on entering the room was a spray of reddish coloured stains on the living room ceiling. On one wall was a mural of a forest scene, in the middle of the scene was a single, small calibre bullet hole. Entering the kitchen, Brunn found another similar bullet hole in the floor. The master bedroom held a four-poster bed that had electrical cords tied to each of its posts. Bolted through the floor at each corner of the bed were heavy eyebolts and above it, a 250-watt floodlight had been fastened to the wall.
To one side of the bed was a dresser, which contained an assortment of women's lingerie, many of which were soiled with dark red stains. Moving to the bed, Brunn lifted one corner of the mattress. Below it was a second mattress, it too was heavily stained with what looked like dried blood. Returning to the front room she was shown a television and two items of audio duplicating equipment by Deputy Varain. All the serial numbers had been erased. Brunn later found that the audio equipment belonged to Harvey Dubs, a San Francisco resident who, with his wife and baby son, had disappeared on July 24, 1984. The family had last been seen by a neighbour who saw them talking to two men who had come to the house to enquire about the equipment which Harvey Dubs had advertised for sale in a local paper.
Brunn then left the property with Varain and drove to the office of the San Andreas District Attorney and spoke with Assistant DA John Martin who, after listening to their report, agreed that they had sufficient evidence to request a search warrant for the whole property. After obtaining the warrant from Judge Douglas Mewhinney, Brunn and Varain returned to the property and conducted a brief interview with Balasz and Eberling, questioning them about their previous visit to the cabin. Eberling refused to answer any questions and Balasz became evasive stating only that her parents had bought the cabin from "the fat guy."
When she had finished with Balasz and her mother, Eisenmann took Brunn to another part of the yard and showed her an incinerator with thick fireproof walls that were capable of withstanding extreme temperatures. Aware that the previous occupants of the cabin were in some way involved in the disappearance of several people, Brunn and Eisenmann decided that a detailed examination of the entire area, including the incinerator and the mysterious concrete bunker, was a priority. As their search warrant didn't cover the locked bunker, Brunn asked Balasz if she would give them consent to search it. Balasz responded to their request angrily, suggesting that they talk to Lake's partner, Charles Ng.
Brunn asked for more details on Ng and was told that he was an Asian who normally hung out with Lake. When asked if she had seen Ng recently, Balasz told the detectives that Ng had rung the previous day and asked her to drive him to his apartment to pick up a paycheck. She then told them that Ng had packed a suitcase with clothes, a .22 handgun, ammunition, a large amount of cash and two I.D's, a California driver's licence and a Social Security card, both in the name of Mike Kimoto. Afterwards she had driven him to the United Airlines terminal at San Francisco airport but had no idea where he was going.
 Leonard Lake |
Balasz was then asked for more information on Lake and told the detectives that she and Lake had met at a Renaissance Fair in Marin County and had married after dating for a short time. As his best man Lake had chosen Charles Gunnar, a long time friend who at just 5'8", weighed nearly four hundred pounds, prompting Balasz to christen him "the fat man". |
Shortly after the wedding, which was paid for by Gunnar, the couple moved to Philo in Mendocino where Lake found work managing a motel. Within a year, Ng arrived and moved in with Lake and his new wife. According to Balasz, Lake and Ng got on well, as they were both former marines. In 1982, five months after his arrival, Ng left for several days and returned late one night driving a pickup. Balasz told the detectives that on the night of Ng's return, he and Lake had performed a strange dance in the yard and later unpacked some crates from the truck and placed them in a shed.
Early the following morning, an FBI swat team raided the property and arrested Ng and Lake and charged them in relation to the theft of weapons from a military base in Hawaii. Lake was later released on $30,000 bail, which was paid by Gunnar, while Ng, who was still considered a serving member of the Marine Corps, was court-martialled and sentenced to two years in Leavenworth prison. Not wishing to go to jail, Lake made plans to run off and hide in the mountains and asked Balasz to go with him. When she refused, the relationship broke down and Lake moved into the cabin alone.
Although Balasz had spoken freely about her life with Lake, when Brunn pushed for further details on his relationship with Ng, Balasz became angry, refused the detectives permission to enter the bunker and demanded to speak with an attorney. Shortly after, Balasz and Eberling left.
After relaying the information regarding Ng's movements and alias to their office, Brunn and Eisenmann left the site to request an additional search warrant for the bunker. Because of the information they had uncovered, their request was given top priority and a joint task force was set up to search the entire site. San Francisco police chief, Cornelius Murphy, authorised a twelve-man unit and Sheriff Ballard of Calaveras County assembled a team of five men and placed Lieutenant Bob Bunning in charge. Deputy Chief of Inspectors Joseph Lordan was placed in charge of the San Francisco detachment.
On Tuesday, June 4, 1985, the search began. The first task was to set up a base camp while a locksmith was summoned to unlock the bunker. A preliminary examination of the area around the bunker was then conducted which revealed a cleared area ten feet in diameter that showed traces of lye and a long trench that seemed to contain articles of clothing. Fearing a gravesite, Sheriff Ballard ordered the searchers to focus their attention on those areas while he sent an officer to find out who owned the neighbouring property. Within hours a team of "sniffer" dogs and their handlers, a forensic specialist and two additional patrolmen had joined the search.
While Ballard was coordinating his search party, the officer returned from the house next door with more disturbing information. The owner of that property, Bo Carter, who had been contacted by telephone, informed the officer that the house was a rental. Some weeks before, his tenants, Lonnie Bond, his partner Brenda O'Connor and their infant son Lonnie Jr., had fallen behind on their rent so he had sent a real estate agent to collect it. When the agent arrived, a man calling himself Charles Gunnar came from the direction of the cabin and told him that the tenants had left ten days previously. At that time, the agent informed Carter that another man, by the name of Robin Stapley, had been living with the Bonds prior to their disappearance. The agent had also told Carter that an eroded bank near the boundary between the two properties had been recently dug up.
Disturbed by the news, Carter went to the site a week later to inspect his property. When he arrived, a man calling himself Charlie Gunnar had approached him and watched as he inspected the house. Carter said he didn't worry about Gunnar until he saw a TV news item about a man who took cyanide following his arrest for a weapons charge. The news item had also shown the man's picture and given his name. According to Carter, the man he had seen near the cabin was Leonard Lake. After hearing the story, Ballard sent searchers to find the area described by the agent.
