Cops dig up man's yard for bodies

Boston Herald, June 3, 2000

SEEKONK - With a backhoe and dogs, police dug up a Seekonk man's property yesterday after a tip suggested they might find the bodies of two infants whose parents belong to a Christian sect.

The digging, which turned up no evidence, was the latest in months of futile searches - at this same Seekonk property, in Attleboro and in northern Maine - for the remains of 10-month-old Samuel Robidoux and his newborn cousin, Jeremiah Courneau.

``It was something we had to do, but it didn't pan out,'' said Gerald FitzGerald, an assistant district attorney for Bristol County.

The case, which is under grand jury investigation, started in November after a disaffected member of the Attleboro-based sect said the infants had died and were buried in Maine's Baxter State Park. Prosecutors suspect Robidoux was allowed to starve to death, and that Courneau was stillborn.

Sect members, who reject modern medicine, have refused to cooperate with police. Six members, including Samuel's father, are jailed for refusing to work with the grand jury.