Officers converged on a Redlands nudist ranch Thursday and used a battering ram to break into the home of a suspect in the disappearance of a local couple.
The hunt is part of an ongoing search for Stephanie Menard, 73, and her 79-year-old husband, Daniel Menard, who disappeared on Sunday.
On Thursday morning, officers arrived at Olive Dell Ranch, where the couple has a home, to conduct a missing persons case investigation. While there, they received a tip that a man involved in their disappearance was somewhere in the mobile home park, according to Redlands spokesman Carl Baker.
Officers locked down the park and obtained a search warrant at the suspect’s home, which is next door to the Menard family’s property. They entered using an impact piston and then used remote-controlled machines, including a drone and assault vehicles, to search the site, Baker said at a news conference Thursday.
Aerial photos from KTLA showed a police vehicle with an arm aggressively digging through the suspect’s home, nearly flipping a tire in the process.
Baker said police had not found the suspect but believed he was somewhere on the property — either in his home or elsewhere.
The couple was last seen at the nudist ranch last Saturday. Stephanie Menard’s purse was found in their home, and their car was found unlocked on the road from the property. Their dog, a small Shih Tzu named Cuddles, is also missing.
Daniel Menard is diabetic and suffers from dementia, the police said.
Tammie Wilkerson, a friend of the couple, told KABC-TV that the Menards lived on the nudist ranch and were very active in the community.
“They’re very sweet people,” Wilkerson said. “There isn’t a mean bone in their body at all, which makes this very confusing.”