Black Dahlia Case Solved? Cadaver Dog Finds Evidence Of Human Decomposition


The Black Dahlia case may have been solved 70 years after the infamous murder took place. The murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947 is the oldest cold case in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, retired detective Steve Hodel believes that the murderer in the Black Dahlia case is none other than his own father, Doctor George Hodel. Mr. Hodel believes that Elizabeth Short was murdered in the Sowden House, his childhood home, and that the only reason he got away with the Black Dahlia slaying was because of connections to the local police.

According to the International Business Times, George Hodel’s home was bugged by the police, and he was overheard telling an unidentified visitor, “Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary because she’s dead.” A District Attorney General agreed to re-open the Black Dahlia case due to Steve Hodel’s evidence, with the focus being on a cadaver dog named Buster trained to find traces of human decomposition.

Retired police Sgt. Paul Dostie worked with a search dog named Buster at the Sowden House. According to The Sun, Buster was trained using cemeteries where he could smell the chemicals released by human decomposition decades after they were buried six feet deep. Buster alerts searchers to a find by lying down and pointing his nose at the source while waiting for a reward. Historians have used Buster to search the site of the Battle of the Bulge, the Barker Ranch home of Charles Manson and his followers, and many other places around the world.

Dostie told the San Bernardino Sun it’s possible that test results coming next week will put the Black Dahlia case to rest:

“”Buster immediately took off … indicating he had picked up the scent of human decomposition. … It certainly seems like someone was murdered there. Something happened. Buster immediately took off … and ran to a vent located at the southwest corner of the property where he alerted, indicating he had picked up the scent of human decomposition. … I could tell the way he was whining that he smelled the scent on the front steps.”

The only limitation to Buster’s body searching capabilities is that he can only point out signs of human decomposition in general. In a criminal trial, Buster cannot point to a specific person, which is necessary for the Black Dahlia case to be declared solved. But Hodel believes that “Buster is alerting to blood. … We have established as fact that the basement … some 66 years after the murder, still holds the smell of death.” Hodel took soil samples from the basement of the home and sent the evidence to a lab for analysis.

Do you think that Steve Hodel has enough evidence that the Black Dahlia case might be solved?

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