Rental Car Driven by Missing Women Found

SACRAMENTO — The charred hulk of a rental car driven by three women who disappeared near Yosemite a month ago was found Thursday in a remote forested area about 40 miles from where they were last seen, the FBI said.

There was no sign of the trio.

“It’s confirmation that they were the victims of a violent crime,” FBI Special Agent James M. Maddock said.

He said the car was found by a passerby near California 108 in the Stanislaus National Forest, not far from the mountain hamlet of Long Barn. FBI Agent Nick Rossi said the identity of the 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix was confirmed through its license plates.

“Obviously, this is one of the key pieces of evidence we’ve been looking for,” Maddock said.

“We really need the public’s assistance on how that car ended up there,” he said. “This is not an area that someone would have just stumbled across. Whoever put that car up there is familiar with the area.”

The vehicle was hidden off the road and had been “badly burned in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence,” Rossi said.

The car probably was abandoned and burned the day after the women disappeared, Maddock said.

He said that immediately after the discovery, the area was cordoned off and an intensive search was begun. Air and foot searches earlier had been concentrated farther south, closer to Yosemite National Park.

Carole Sund, 42, of Eureka, her 15-year-old daughter Julie and a 16-year-old family friend, Silvina Pelosso of Cordoba, Argentina, were last seen Feb. 15 as they left a restaurant next to the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, where they had been staying during a trip to Yosemite.

Carole Sund’s wallet was found Feb. 19 in Modesto, a two-hour drive in the opposite direction of where the car was found.

In Modesto, her father, Francis Carrington, met briefly with reporters Thursday and said he remained hopeful that the trio would be found alive, speculating that they were being held hostage somewhere.

“The news is probably all over Eureka by now,” he said, looking more cheerful than he had in weeks. “This has been a fight. I’m the old man of the family and . . . we want to get our whole family back together.”

The Carrington family, which has made millions in Northern California real estate, has offered a $300,000 reward in the case.

FBI agents asked that anyone with information about how the rental car wound up in remote Tuolumne County call (800) 435-7883.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic and the Associated Press contributed to this story.