Bradshaw said the tip that led them to the yard at
265 Swain Blvd. came through social media shortly after his social-media team released a 19-minute documentary on the 35th anniversary of Christy’s disappearance.
Bradshaw called the tip “one of the best and most credible leads that we have got to date to solve this case,” but would not elaborate on who gave them the tip, what exactly it said or how investigators worked to verify it in the two months since they received it.
From Monday morning through Friday afternoon, sheriff’s investigators worked alongside a team of forensic anthropologists from Florida Gulf Coast clearing vegetation outside the home, shoveling dirt and methodically sifting through those piles, bucket by bucket, for any trace of the missing second-grader. On Friday, six members of the Cardinal Newman High School football team helped in the dig, too.
“I think we’re going to bring Christy home,” her mother Jennie Johnson said to reporters Monday across the street from the dig site. “We are going to bring Christy home.”
The investigation continues
Sheriff’s investigators have remained tight-lipped about the specifics of the search. However, a review of property records indicates it likely included a search of the septic tank, which sits on the southeast corner of the property. It appears the tank has been there since Guadalupe and Maria Martinez bought the property in 1977.
About 10 years ago, the couple’s oldest daughter, Maria Ruiz, and her husband opened that tank. They spotted a white, round object about the size of a volleyball at the bottom.
Florida 1984 cold-case investigation turns to yard where Christy Luna once played