Federal agents suspended a search for former Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa today because they were unable to locate his remains.
The search began near Oakland Township, Michigan on Monday after the FBI received what agents considered to be a credible tip from Anthony Zerilli, son of former Mafia boss Joseph Zerilli. He claims that he heard about Hoffa’s alleged death through his Mafia connections.
Robert Foley is the FBI Special Agent in Charge of Detroit. He told
the Los Angeles Times that “We did not uncover any evidence relevant to the investigation on James Hoffa[.]”
Hoffa, former president of the Teamsters union, was convicted of fraud in 1964. Later pardoned by Nixon, Hoffa was last seen outside of a restaurant in Detroit while waiting for a meeting to begin in 1975. During the ensuing years, many conspiracy theories have surfaced trying to explain exactly what happened to Hoffa. Since he sometimes associated with mobsters, some speculate that he may have been meeting mobsters the day that he disappeared.
“It’s my fondest hope that we can give … closure not just to the Hoffa family, but also to the community and stop tearing that scab off with every new lead and bring some conclusion,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard
told the Detroit Free Press.