Human remains inside vehicle

NEWMAN – Nearly four years after well-known West Sider Ben Brunsvik of Gustine vanished without a trace on a foggy January morning, his mud-caked station wagon was pulled from the Delta-Mendota Canal Friday with human remains inside.

For friends and family who had scoured back roads and waterways throughout Northern California, checked hospitals, pored over his phone records, contacted prospective business clients he may have been on the way to meet and explored every imaginable scenario after Brunsvik went missing, the discovery ended the uncertainty they had lived with each day.

“It is bittersweet,” said Brian Andersen, one of Brunsvik’s many close friends. “It is a blessing and an answer to our prayers to find him, but it brings up those old wounds and it still hurts.”

Authorities have not positively identified the remains inside the vehicle, a process they say could take some time.

There were no reported indications of foul play.

Determining exactly what happened that fateful morning will be difficult because of the time which has elapsed, said Undersheriff Bill Heyne.

“There is no way to know at this point exactly why the vehicle ended up in the canal,” he commented. “We will process the vehicle to look for any evidence of what happened.”

The air bags in the vehicle had deployed, said a law enforcement officer at the scene.

Heyne said workers who were apparently cleaning the canal notified the sheriff’s department shortly before 9:30 a.m. Friday that they had discovered the vehicle in the waterway. It was found where Stuhr Road crosses the canal west of Newman, near Bell Road.

Brunsvik’s 1997 Ford Escort wagon was found in an area extensively searched by the legion of volunteers who turned out in the wake of Brunsvik’s baffling disappearance in January 2006 to search for the missing man.

“It’s frustrating that he was so close and we didn’t find him,” Amy Andersen related.

“We looked up and down those banks,” said Brian Andersen and Richard Perrett. “I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t have noticed something.”

It remains unknown where Brunsvik was going when he disappeared. The computer software consultant was last seen leaving his Anderson Road office between Newman and Crows Landing.

The question of exactly what transpired that morning remains a mystery as well – although family and friends hope that the investigation will unearth those answers.

But Brunsvik’s friends, who never stopped looking for any trace of his distinctive green car, say they now know his fate.

“I don’t think we ever thought we would have an answer,” Amy Andersen reflected.

“There were some of us who still held out hope that he would come back,” Perrett said. “We are relieved that now we know.”

Word of the discovery spread quickly through the large circle of Brunsvik’s friends and family.

“It is still on the minds of a lot of people,” Brian Andersen remarked.

“I don’t think the impact has lessened at all,” Perrett added. “We still think of him often and wish that he was here.”

A web site devoted to the search for Brunsvik was updated Friday with the news that he had been found.

The web site indicated that a private family service is planned when the remains have been positively identified.

A memorial service was held about a year after he went missing.