A quiet neighborhood in San Diego was jolted into shock on Tuesday when a dedicated multi‑agency task force uncovered human remains on a residential lot, finally opening a mystery that had been brewing for years.
Federal agents, along with local police, entered a home in Southcrest on Wednesday with a search warrant after receiving a tip that a body had been hidden there. The grave discovery came at a house on the 3400 block of Newton Avenue. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) originally flagged the lead, and then teamed up with the FBI and the San Diego Police Department to comb the property.
Investigators, some wearing hazmat suits, were seen shoveling the yard and probing a crawl space until they confirmed what they had found. When the warrant team arrived on Sunday night, they told the family who had moved in the previous year that they needed to leave the house and provided a stipend for a hotel stay— the search was aimed at the former resident’s property and specifically for remains beneath the house.
According to NBC, the San Diego District Attorney has named 74‑year‑old Dwight Rhone a person of interest. Records show that Rhone lived at the Newton address in 2020, and his file holds dozens of arrests spanning decades, starting back in 1978. He is also linked to a 2023 murder on Interstate 5 near State Route 905, where he allegedly set a body and vehicle ablaze. Rhone was arrested on Feb. 26 by the San Diego Sheriff’s Office for that case and is currently held at the San Diego Central Jail. He faces charges of first‑degree murder, attempted robbery, vehicle theft, and fraudulently using another person’s personal information, with a court appearance scheduled for Dec. 10.
The FBI’s San Diego division released a statement on Dec. 2, saying “Working through our Evidence Response Team, the FBI provided expertise through evidence collection and processing, including the use of forensic canines. As human remains were located on the property, SDPD has jurisdiction for any further investigative work.”
The San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office is now conducting an identification and cause‑of‑death investigation. Authorities have withheld details about the suspect in custody and how long the remains have been present. The community remains on edge as the case unfolds.
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