A skull has been found at the residence where Bonnie Haim lived when workers were doing renovation work.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/police-investigation-at-the-home-of-a-missing-person-case-from-the-90s/30230154

I posted the finding to my Unsolved Mysteries page. They say it will take 3 more days of digging to find more remains and/or any clues. If Bonnie is in the backyard, then that'd coincide with the story that their son witnessed his mom's murder and was forced to help Michael dispose of Bonnie's body. Such a sad case.

I hope they've found her.

Agreed, Necco. And I hope that they can charge her husband if he is indeed responsible (very likely, considering where the skull was found).

Hmmm, I'd like to be more optimistic here, but Bonnie's father is interviewed in this article and he says that the pool had already been there for several years before Bonnie disappeared. If so, it seems like it would have taken a lot of work for Michael to excavate the pool and hide a body down there, but I suppose anything's possible:
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2014-12-14/story/piece-skull-found-buried-backyard-missing-jacksonville-mothers-northside

Also, kudos to the UM website as they've already added this update to the end of Bonnie Haim's profile page. They used to be notoriously slow at updating their case files, but they're on the ball with this one.

Wow, her father seems like he's still holding out hope that Bonnie is still alive. I had no idea that a judge found Michael liable for her death back in 2004, why not charge the POS?

Well damn the irony if it is another person's skull. Her father always sided with his son in law. Scoffed during the UM interview when the guys own aunt thought he did it!

Wow, her father seems like he's still holding out hope that Bonnie is still alive. I had no idea that a judge found Michael liable for her death back in 2004, why not charge the POS?Well, if this is her, then here's hoping they go through with it.

I really do hope she's been found.

The father might have sided with her husband out of a desperate hope she was still alive. If he could convince himself she took off, then there is still hope she is alive.

Wow, her father seems like he's still holding out hope that Bonnie is still alive. I had no idea that a judge found Michael liable for her death back in 2004, why not charge the POS?

Burden of proof in a wrongful death case is different than the burden of proof in a criminal case. I think for a civil claim, the standard is preponderance of the evidence, which is literally "50.1% of me thinks he did it."

In a criminal suit, the prosecution is held to the highest burden, which is beyond a reasonable doubt, which is proof of such a convincing character that one would be willing to rely and act upon it without hesitation in the most important of one's own affairs. You can't really pin a number to it, but I would venture it's somewhere in the 96-99% zone.

My guess is that if the skull turns out to be Bonnie's, you'll see criminal charges. I join with the others, though: I'm curious to see if it actually IS her, given the circumstances with the pool. Fascinating nonetheless!

Has anyone seen if it was an in ground or above ground pool? It would be much easier to hide someone under an existing above ground pool, I would think.

Burden of proof in a wrongful death case is different than the burden of proof in a criminal case. I think for a civil claim, the standard is preponderance of the evidence, which is literally "50.1% of me thinks he did it."

In a criminal suit, the prosecution is held to the highest burden, which is beyond a reasonable doubt, which is proof of such a convincing character that one would be willing to rely and act upon it without hesitation in the most important of one's own affairs. You can't really pin a number to it, but I would venture it's somewhere in the 96-99% zone.

My guess is that if the skull turns out to be Bonnie's, you'll see criminal charges. I join with the others, though: I'm curious to see if it actually IS her, given the circumstances with the pool. Fascinating nonetheless!

IMO, not that I'm a legal expert or anything even remotely close, the case against Michael Haim, circumstantial as it may be, is still strong. Body or no body, you have:

-Michael's own family members who would testify to physical abuse.
-Evidence that Bonnie was planning on leaving Michael (setting up a new bank account, enrolled her son in a different school, put a deposit down on a new apartment), and that she did not intend to run away and start a new life.
-Bonnie's last phone call placed to Michael's aunt about a "discussion" they had had the night before she disappeared.
-Michael never reported her missing.
-Michael called out sick on the date of her disappearance.
-The position of the seat in Bonnie's abandoned car and the pristine footprint that matched a rare shoe owned by Michael.
-On the night of Bonnie's disappearance, Michael called his mother to come over and watch his son, while he "looked for Bonnie". He was gone a full 45 minutes.

The biggest mystery to me is that if it isn't Bonnie's remains, whose are they!?

The biggest mystery to me is that if it isn't Bonnie's remains, whose are they!?

With the way things have been being solved in insane ways lately, it wouldn't shock me if the remains were Linda Sohus.

With the way things have been being solved in insane ways lately, it wouldn't shock me if the remains were Linda Sohus.

I really wish the forums had a "like" button. How insane would THAT be?

With the way things have been being solved in insane ways lately, it wouldn't shock me if the remains were Linda Sohus.Planted by Rob Shafer.

I have a home with a pool in Florida. Our rainy season is formidable. Land shifts that far under the ground. Three times in the past three years I've had a prominent hole in the ground show up at the outer edge of the pool patio. Slightly different place each time. Within 10 feet of each other. Off to Home Depot for bags of sand. The first time it took 16 bags to fill the hole completely, then 14 the second time and 8 the third time.

The third time I had a stray cat scramble out of the hole while I was filling it with sand. Apparently he discovered the opening before I did and had been using it as a home, and protection from the sun.

Just because the bones were discovered in one area doesn't mean they started out in the same place.

We don't know what the backhoe team was doing, how careful they were being. Keep in mind they were tearing something apart, not building something. That allows for more of an attack mode. Besides, all we have is one sentence from the father, not great detail regarding where the bones were found and what they look like.

If they are human bones it's a massive favorite they are Bonnie and not someone else, and that this case is logically solved. How many times have we been told the wife or missing person left the home in a fit of emotion, never to be seen again, and then the car and a few belongings conveniently show up in the general vicinity. That must be Simpleton Coverup 101.

Damn, Awsi, how many bodies are in YOUR backyard? *side eye*

;) ;)

With the way things have been being solved in insane ways lately, it wouldn't shock me if the remains were Linda Sohus.

After reading this I immediately :lol: but then I :eek:

Damn, Awsi, how many bodies are in YOUR backyard? *side eye*

;) ;)

Not too many people realize that the woodchipper guy was a copycat.

Not too many people realize that the woodchipper guy was a copycat.

I hope you were smart enough to run wood through it after your cleaned it.

I still think it was irresponsible for the media to make such a huge story out of this before much is known. I keep thinking back to the animal bones found in the Wendy Camp case a few years before the real remains were found.

It's got to be hard enough dealing with a lost loved one, without the "rush to report" media getting your hopes up time and again. Not only should they have waited until the remains were shown to be human, but I'd take it a step farther and say that since NAMUS has Bonnie's DNA profile on record, they wouldn't have to report anything until they were sure it was her.

It is just my opinion, but I value the emotions of the people still around much more than the sensationalist news story.

I always wondered if Bonnie's father was in fact a abuser himself. Just the way he acted on the segment was bizarre for me.

I hope it is her and that it brings closure for her son. I'm sure that it is very hard to live with the memories of what he was made to do by his father in fact that story is true (I believe it is).

I always wondered if Bonnie's father was in fact a abuser himself. Just the way he acted on the segment was bizarre for me.

I personally think he was (and probably still to this day) holding out hope that his daughter was still alive. He wants to believe Michael is innocent because that ups the chances that his daughter ran off and is in fact still alive.

I am struggling to remember this case.

Here's the official unsolved site: http://unsolved.com/archives/bonnie-haim Interestingly, they've added the update about the skull being found. (They also allow comments now. I haven't visited there in so long, I didn't know they were doing that.)

and the short synopsis at wikia: http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Bonnie_Haim

It says that in 2005, a civil court ordered Bonnie's husband to pay their son over $26 million. The father's parental rights were terminated, but the wikia doesn't make it clear when that happened.

Any word on the test results?

Any word on the test results?


http://www.news4jax.com/news/remains-found-at-missing-woman-home-are-human/30464092

This article states the remains are human. But they still do not know who's they are.

How many times have we been told the wife or missing person left the home in a fit of emotion, never to be seen again, and then the car and a few belongings conveniently show up in the general vicinity. That must be Simpleton Coverup 101.

This reminds me of a case on a true crime show of which I remember every detail except anything which might actually identify it! The show was incredibly well done and presented the story in a suspenseful way.

It involved a woman as a five-year-old girl in the 1960s (in the U. S. but don't recall where) whose parents argued and she was told her mother walked out. For years her problems were blamed on "being unable to handle that her mother chose to leave." Soon after her mother disappeared, a fire broke out. The five-year-old was severely burned and her nine-year-old brother was killed. Other sisters, at least two, escaped unharmed. Either the mother or the daughter may have been named Diane or Diana.

As an adult, this woman asserted that her father struck her mother and then buried her in the back yard. After the burial, the little girl left bread on the ground in case her mother was hungry :crying: and not until after the funeral of a friend's mother did she realize her own mother wasn't coming back. Her father and others dismissed her assertions as a "fabrication," but an investigator who believed her asked to dig up the back yard. The daughter said, "You can't, my father built a swimming pool there and it's under tons of concrete." She was creeped out that for years her family used this pool literally over her mother's dead body!

She remembered the night her mother was killed she was wearing what she called her "coat dress." The investigator obtained the proper papers and equipment and had the whole pool and deck area torn up. Underneath was a dead body. Unfortunately, the outer clothing had disintegrated, so no "coat dress." The cement had fossilized the bones, so no DNA. Fire had destroyed the dental records. The underwear were consistent with what a female would have worn at the time the mother disappeared and the skull fit a photograph of the mother. The father was convicted of the murder and sent to prison, still insisting his daughter had "fabricated" the story. ohno: The daughter figured he set the fire on purpose to eliminate possible witnesses. Obviously he didn't do a good enough job.

This reminds me of a case on a true crime show of which I remember every detail except anything which might actually identify it! The show was incredibly well done and presented the story in a suspenseful way.

It involved a woman as a five-year-old girl in the 1960s (in the U. S. but don't recall where) whose parents argued and she was told her mother walked out. For years her problems were blamed on "being unable to handle that her mother chose to leave." Soon after her mother disappeared, a fire broke out. The five-year-old was severely burned and her nine-year-old brother was killed. Other sisters, at least two, escaped unharmed. Either the mother or the daughter may have been named Diane or Diana.

As an adult, this woman asserted that her father struck her mother and then buried her in the back yard. After the burial, the little girl left bread on the ground in case her mother was hungry :crying: and not until after the funeral of a friend's mother did she realize her own mother wasn't coming back. Her father and others dismissed her assertions as a "fabrication," but an investigator who believed her asked to dig up the back yard. The daughter said, "You can't, my father built a swimming pool there and it's under tons of concrete." She was creeped out that for years her family used this pool literally over her mother's dead body!

She remembered the night her mother was killed she was wearing what she called her "coat dress." The investigator obtained the proper papers and equipment and had the whole pool and deck area torn up. Underneath was a dead body. Unfortunately, the outer clothing had disintegrated, so no "coat dress." The cement had fossilized the bones, so no DNA. Fire had destroyed the dental records. The underwear were consistent with what a female would have worn at the time the mother disappeared and the skull fit a photograph of the mother. The father was convicted of the murder and sent to prison, still insisting his daughter had "fabricated" the story. ohno: The daughter figured he set the fire on purpose to eliminate possible witnesses. Obviously he didn't do a good enough job.

That case sounds SO familiar, but a ton of google searches later... can't figure it out. It's driving me crazy.

That case sounds SO familiar, but a ton of google searches later... can't figure it out. It's driving me crazy.

Me, too. Someone identified it on some message board, which I also can't identify!

Me, too. Someone identified it on some message board, which I also can't identify!

It was from Forensic Files, but I don't know what the case was.

It was from Forensic Files, but I don't know what the case was.

I had the children's fates exactly backwards--it was the brother who escaped the fire while the sisters died--but otherwise I recalled the basic facts pretty well. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1998-08-13/news/the-eternal-flame/

I had the children's fates exactly backwards--it was the brother who escaped the fire while the sisters died--but otherwise I recalled the basic facts pretty well. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1998-08-13/news/the-eternal-flame/

Haunting Vision is the name of the episode on Forensic Files. Sadly, I can't find it online or on Netflix.

In August 2015, the remains were confirmed to be hers and her husband is being charged with murder. I'm sure it was updated on this site, but not this thread. :

http://www.news4jax.com/news/local/jacksonville/man-charged-with-murder-of-wife-who-disappeared-22-years-ago

In August 2015, the remains were confirmed to be hers and her husband is being charged with murder. I'm sure it was updated on this site, but not this thread. :

http://www.news4jax.com/news/local/jacksonville/man-charged-with-murder-of-wife-who-disappeared-22-years-ago


I wonder what her father thinks. He believed her husband was innocent. Glad her son has answers.

That case sounds SO familiar, but a ton of google searches later... can't figure it out. It's driving me crazy.

I saw that episode a year or two ago. From memory I believe it was one of the half hour programs, not hour. Most likely it was on Investigation Discovery since the true crime programs I watch are primarily on that network.

On edit: Whoops, sorry I should have clicked Page 3 before posting. I'm glad someone identified the Forensic Files episode before I started searching. I'm fairly good at identifying key words for searches but this one wasn't obvious.

***

Anyway, I'm not surprised the remains proved to be Bonnie. I have to say this wasn't the worst hiding place scheme ever, if you're going to do it on your own property. Not many private pools are dug up, and if so it can be decades and decades later, beyond the lifespan in question.

Certainly preferable to a sudden need for a cement-bottomed bird bath adjacent the mail box. That's another familiar staple of Simpleton Coverup 101.

Bonnie's sister runs a Facebook page about Bonnie and she said it might not be until next year that her family can receive Bonnie's remains and give her a proper burial. I had heard that Michael Haim's trial was supposed to begin this year, but not sure if that is still the case or if it was pushed to 2017.

Just re-read about this case...what a horrible thing for their 3 yr old to see...his mother shot right before his eyes. Since their son could also tell the police where the gun was (riverbank) he must have seen that too. It says his father lost custody of him when he was 9. Think how horrible it was for the kid to live with his father KNOWING what he'd done. :(

I'm glad she's found now so that her family and son will have somewhere to come and visit her.