dark valley. he liked to drive his truck up to the outskirts of the national forest, a place where people tend to toss things like old tvs, maybe some furniture. rocky liked to poke around here, always with his dog buddy by his side. he d be mad if i didn t take him. in october 2014, they were just five minutes into their hike when something curious happened. we were walking up this little area right here and he runs to a bush. and i go, buddy, stop. and he just looking at the bush, he won t leave it or anything, so we go up there and we re looking and it s like, wow, what that looks pretty strange. buddy had made a grim discovery, a human skull. you know, i was just totally amazed. i was without words, you know. i didn t know what to think. when police arrived they
buddy discovered something reporter: rocky ramos liked to drive his truck up to the outskirts of the angeles national forest. a place where people tend to toss things like old tvs maybe some furniture rocky liked to poke around up here always with his dog buddy by his side he d be mad if i didn t take him. reporter: in october 2014, they were just five minutes into their hike when something curious happened we were walking up this little area right here and he runs to a bush. and i go, buddy, stop. and he s just lookin at the bush he won t leave it or anything so we go up there, and we re lookin and it s, like, wow, what is that looks pretty strange. reporter: buddy had made a grim discovery a human skull. i was just totally amazed i was without words, you know? i didn t know what to think. reporter: when police arrived, they found a shallow
and because construction crews had once leveled and filled a dry stream bed where some of the bodies had been buried, the team had to dig deep to find what had once been shallow graves. we re police officers. we are not archaeologists. we have a little bit of background here, but something on this level was overwhelming. the learning curve was steep. early in the excavation, one investigator watched as an earth mover dug deep and dumped a load of dirt, only to see a human skull roll down the hill and stop at his feet. it was an eye-opener that taught everyone from seasoned criminal investigator to backhoe operator to tread lightly. from the time that bone came out of the hole, just about every single remaining victim came out. they were using the best technology the department could bring to bear, lasers and ground-penetrating radar.
it came time to prosecute the west mesa gravedigger. the size and the scope of this thing was way beyond i think what any of us imagined it would be as it unfolded. reporter: it was a crime scene that covered the equivalent of 75 football fields. and because construction crews had once leveled and filled a dry streambed where some of the body had been buried, the team had to dig deep to find what had once been shallow graves. we re police officers. we re not archaeologists. we have a little bit of background in some of these things. but something in this level was overwhelming. reporter: the learning curve was steep. early in the excavation one investigator watched as an earth mover dug deep and dumped a load of dirt. only to see a human skull roll down the hill and stop at his feet. it was an eye opener that taught everyone from seasoned criminal investigator to backhoe operator to tread lightly.
it came time to prosecute the west mesa grave digger. the size and the scope of this thing was way beyond i think what any of us imagined it would be as it unfolded. reporter: it was a crime scene that covered the equivalent of 75 football fields. and because construction crews had once leveled and filled a dry stream bed where some of the body had been buried, the team had to dig deep to find what had once been shallow graves. we re police officers. we re not archaeologists. we have a little bit of background in some of these things. but something in this level was overwhelming. reporter: the learning curve was steep. early in the excavation one investigator watched as an earth mover dug deep and dumped a load of dirt. only to see a human skull roll down the hill and stop at his feet. it was an eye opener that taught everyone from seasoned criminal investigator to backhoe operator to tread lightly.