Car found buried in backyard of $15M Atherton house of Facebook engineer may include ‘human remains’
ATHERTON, CALIFORNIA: Police in Atherton have a mystery on their hands after a car was dug up during a renovation work. As per reports, a rich couple, who owns a $15 million home in the town, hired landscapers to refurbish their backyard but shockingly, the workers discovered a car jammed with concrete. It has now been speculated that the site may be a crime scene and the vehicle contained “human remains,” The Daily Mail reported.
Paul Saab and Christal Condon Saab reportedly bought the house in 2020 and live there with their three young children. Paul is an employee of Facebook and his wife is an angel investor. The car, which was discovered buried in their yard on the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue, “was possibly buried sometime in the 1990s and was buried approximately 4 – 5 feet into the ground. There were unused bags of concrete throughout the vehicle,” a statement from Atherton Police Department said.
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It explained, “On Thursday, October 20th, 2022, at about 8:50 am, Atherton police officers responded to a residence in the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue regarding a buried vehicle that was located during a landscaping project.”
The statement also noted, “Due to the unknown nature of why the vehicle was buried, cadaver dogs were called to the scene. The cadaver dogs made a slight notification of possible human remains. The San Mateo Crime Lab was contacted and sent technicians to assist with excavating the vehicle. Excavation is ongoing and at this time, no human remains have been located,” before adding, “The vehicle was buried before the current homeowner occupied the home. The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation.”
Locals have also expressed their shock over the bizarre discovery as local resident Athena Ogawa told NBC Bay Area, “It's a mystery in my own neighborhood. It’s strange, but it was really fascinating to see all this happening. I just want to see how this plays out,” Another resident Peter Sun added, “It's kind of strange. But usually, it’s pretty safe and it's like everyone is kind of doing their own thing.”
Though law enforcement officials have not revealed who owned the mysterious car, it has been said that it belonged to the house’s previous residents. Dailymail.com also claimed that “the Lew family lived in the home between 1990 and 2014,” before it was sold for $7.3 million. Out of the 1.63-acre area, the house is built on 12,000sq ft, and includes five bedrooms and seven bathrooms along with a private pool.
Atherton is apparently one of the wealthiest areas to live in the US with the average household income of its residents at $450,000. It is only 20 minutes away from the main offices of Tesla, Facebook, and Google. A number of high profile personalities are living or lived there, like Facebook executives Nick Clegg and Sheryl Sandberg, NBA star Stephen Curry, late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, and Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.