<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/06/MN95165.DTL";>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/06/MN95165.DTL<;/a><BR>Excavation at ex-priest's home <BR>Police dig in yard at Truckee vacation house for possible remains of missing kids <P>Janine DeFao, Kevin Fagan and Jaxon Vanderbeken, Chronicle Staff Writers Thursday, June 6, 2002 <P>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR> <BR> <P><BR>Truckee, Nevada County -- Bay Area police agencies mounted a massive search at the vacation home of a defrocked Catholic priest Wednesday to see if he had any connection to the disappearance of four missing Northern California girls -- including Pinole's Amber Swartz. <P>Using cadaver-sniffing dogs and a backhoe, authorities said they will continue to search the front and back yards of the home of accused child molester Stephen Kiesle, 55, today for any signs of human remains. <P>The dogs have picked up scents that indicate either human or animal remains are probably under the dirt in front of or behind the Swiss chalet-style vacation home, which sits on a quiet mountain street surrounded by pines. <P>Kiesle already faces charges he molested three girls 30 years ago in Fremont. But Pinole police came to Truckee after they learned he had been living 1 1/2 blocks from 7-year-old Amber Swartz at the time she vanished in 1988. <P>The now-retired computer consultant, whose regular home is still in Pinole, was a priest in the 1970s but was defrocked in 1978 after being convicted of child molestation. <P><BR>MISSED OPPORTUNITY<BR>Amber's mother, Kim Swartz, on Wednesday nervously awaited word of the search in the Sierra and said she was dismayed to learn from authorities that Kiesle's 1978 conviction had been legally expunged from court records before her daughter disappeared. Because of that, she said, his name never came up when police queried every child molester on file in the area after Amber was snatched from the family driveway. <P>"They could have sent dogs there back then, in 1988, to determine if her scent was in his home," Swartz said. "This could have given them a lot of direction back then." <P>Former Pinole police Sgt. Douglas MacArthur, who led the investigation in 1988, agreed. <P>"I know for a fact that if we had known at the time that he had been let go from a church because of molestation, it would have been very different," MacArthur said. <P>Swartz said she remembers seeing Kiesle in the neighborhood when she lived there with Amber, and they may have been in the same Rotary Club for a while after the disappearance. <P>"I only remembered him when I saw him in passing," she said. "He was just a neighbor, and he seemed like a pretty nice, gentle kind of guy." <P><BR>GUARDED HOPES<BR>Swartz said two of Kiesle's earlier alleged molestation victims looked like Amber when they were her age, which is when the alleged crimes took place. That, plus his proximity to her former home -- she hasn't lived in Pinole for years -- raised her hopes about this latest lead. But not too high, she cautioned. <P>Since her daughter's disappearance, several major leads have come and gone, including one in 1995 that sent detectives digging around a Richmond home in much the same manner as this latest search. <P>"You've just got to hold on to the seat of your pants, keep a clear head and stay calm, or you won't be able to get out of the bed in the morning," Swartz said. <P>In addition to officers from Pinole, Contra Costa County and Fremont, El Dorado County sheriff's deputies were on hand Wednesday to see whether Kiesle was involved in the disappearance of 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard, who was reported missing in 1991 from her home in South Lake Tahoe. <P>"We haven't found anything yet," said Cmdr. Scott Berry of the Truckee police, who helped in the search. "There were four or five locations on the property where dogs were interested. We focused on one of them. We are still focusing on the front yard." <P><BR>'ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO THIS'<BR>Kiesle's attorney, Bill Gagen, said his client is being smeared by overzealous investigators who acted without any firm evidence of anything. <P>"After they're finished digging and doing what they're going to do, they're not going to find anything, and the damage is done," he said. <P>"There's absolutely nothing to this," Gagen added. <P>"It's bad enough to be charged with things that occurred (30 years ago) and then to be related to the well-known disappearance of a child without any evidence," he said, describing Kiesle and his wife as being devastated by the unjustified scrutiny. <P>Kiesle has been free in lieu of $180,000 bail. Kiesle's wife, reached at their Pinole home, referred calls to the attorney. <P>Authorities said that in addition to seeing if Kiesle is connected to the Amber or Jaycee cases, they are searching for clues to the disappearances of two other missing Northern California girls, whom they would not identify. The parents of Michaela Garecht and Ilene Misheloff, two East Bay girls who vanished around the same time as Amber, said they had not been contacted by police. <P>Fremont police were the first to search Kiesle's remote vacation home on Tuesday, looking for diaries, photos and computer files in connection with the pending case against him. They recovered a small box with documents and other information they say is relevant. <P>Fremont police spokesman Detective Bill Veteran said Pinole police became involved after they learned Kiesle had lived down the street from Amber. <P>"If you've got a missing child that was the same age as the victims of a guy who lived down street, who was in the area at the time she disappeared," you need to check it out, he said. <P>Police found no evidence at Kiesle's Pinole home linking him to her disappearance, however, and Fremont police found nothing inside the Truckee home either. <P>Chronicle staff writers Mark Martin and Jim Herron Zamora contributed to this report. / E-mail the writers at jdefao@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com and jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com. <P> <BR>