Posted on May 19, 2012.
YERINGTON -- The body of a woman found in the backyard of a home in Riverbank, Calif., is believed to be that of Peggy Herlacher, a 73-year-old Silver Springs woman who has been missing since July 22.
Autopsy results show the woman was strangled, and the Lyon County Sheriff's Office is preparing to file murder charges against her grandson, who went to live with her in a last-ditch attempt to clean up his life, authorities said Thursday morning.
Speaking at a press conference to discuss the discovery of the body, Lyon County Sheriff Allen Veil said he believes the body is that of Herlacher, but dental records and DNA will be used to confirm the identification.
Veil said the body was discovered at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday buried in a flower bed of a home at 2549 Dobbins Lane in Riverbank, northeast of Modesto. The home belongs to the maternal grandfather of James Masterson, 22, who has been identified as the suspect in Herlacher's death and is her grandson.
Veil said the body was wrapped in two separate articles of bedding and covered in plastic, and a large flower pot had been placed on top of the burial site.
"The body was very, very well concealed," he said.
Veil said Lyon County Sheriff's deputies had visited the home in Riverbank once before to speak with family members, and returned Tuesday because of information received during the investigation. He said a deputy recalled seeing dirt on a sprinkler head during the first visit, which he'd thought was odd.
"When he went back, he asked the family about that, and they said they'd been having problems with a sprinkler, so they started there and very shortly after found the body," Veil said.
Herlacher disappeared from her Silver Springs home and was reported missing on July 24. Masterson was estranged from his family in California because of drug use and theft of property from family members, and his living with his grandmother was a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate himself, Veil said at the press conference Thursday morning. He said Masterson had been living in Herlacher's home for only about a week when the murder occurred.