Crews spent two days tearing up concrete and soil at a north side property long linked to convicted murderer Michael Lock before police said they found nothing of evidentiary value.
MILWAUKEE, WI — Milwaukee police used excavators, a Bobcat and other equipment to dig under and around a garage behind a home in the Rufus King neighborhood this week, carrying out a search warrant at a property tied for years to convicted killer Michael Lock.
Why the search happened remains unclear, but the scene quickly drew attention because of the address and the history attached to it. Investigators worked Monday, April 20, and Tuesday, April 21, at 4343 N. 15th St., near 15th and Congress. By late Tuesday, police said the warrant had been completed and nothing of evidentiary value had been found. Even so, the search showed that a case tied to killings from more than two decades ago still casts a long shadow over Milwaukee’s north side.
The first signs of the search became visible Monday afternoon, when police, city vehicles and heavy equipment moved into the alley behind the home. Aerial video and footage from the ground showed crews cutting through the garage floor, lifting out chunks of concrete and hauling away large amounts of soil. By Monday night, police said detectives and crews were searching in, under and around the garage as part of an ongoing investigation. Officers did not say what evidence they expected to find, who might be tied to the warrant or whether anyone was in custody. They did say no human remains had been found at that point. On Tuesday morning, the work resumed. Trucks, vans, excavators and police units again filled the alley as crews dug alongside the garage and home, removed sections of parking slab and continued a careful search of the backyard.
The operation involved more than patrol officers. News outlets at the scene reported seeing investigators from the Milwaukee Police Department, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation. FOX6 reported that crews appeared to use screening materials to sift soil and a ground-penetrating radar unit as part of the work. TMJ4 reported that concrete sections in the yard were marked with bright pink letters, suggesting a grid-style search. A Milwaukee police spokesperson kept the department’s public explanation narrow. Late Tuesday, the spokesperson said, “We have completed the execution of our warrant and nothing of evidentiary value was located.” The spokesperson added that the investigation remains ongoing. Police did not say whether the search was aimed at finding physical evidence, human remains or something else. They also did not explain what prompted the excavation this week after months of little public activity at the address.
The property’s history is why the excavation drew such intense notice. Lock, now 55, lived at the address in 2007 when prosecutors charged him in two killings. Court records and later reporting tied him to a violent drug operation that investigators said buried victims under concrete. Jurors convicted Lock in 2008 after the bodies of two rival drug dealers were found at a different property on Fiebrantz Avenue in 2005. Prosecutors said the victims, Felipe Armondo Melendez-Rivas and Eugene Chaney, had been killed and hidden beneath concrete slabs. Lock is serving consecutive life sentences. The excavation this week did not happen at the Fiebrantz property, but at another address linked to him from that period. That distinction mattered because police never confirmed that the current search was tied to Lock’s homicide case. Still, the echoes were hard to miss. WISN, citing prior court material and reporting, said an earlier warrant in the broader case referred to investigators looking for the remains of at least four other people believed to have been around Lock and the group known as the “Body Snatchers.”
There was also a more recent investigative thread at the same home. Reporting on the warrant history showed police were at the property in January 2026 as part of a stolen vehicle and arson investigation. In that earlier search, investigators were looking for cellphones, tablets, a computer and gun ammunition. Police have not said whether the April excavation grew out of that January warrant, from renewed review of old homicide files or from some other lead developed by detectives. That silence leaves the legal and procedural picture incomplete. What is clear is that officers obtained judicial approval for a new search warrant and carried it out over two days with specialized crews and equipment. No new criminal charges were announced Tuesday, and police did not schedule a public briefing or identify a next court date tied to the search itself. The most immediate next step appears to be continued review of whatever information led detectives to seek the warrant in the first place, even after the dig ended without publicly identified evidence.
On the block, the excavation turned an ordinary residential alley into a scene of mud, broken concrete and quiet speculation. Neighbors watched as crews moved back and forth with machinery more often seen on a demolition site than at a house search. Tarps covered parts of the yard at different points Tuesday, and a large hole remained visible behind the garage before crews wrapped up. The scale of the operation stood out almost as much as the lack of answers. John Diedrich, an investigative reporter who has long covered the Lock case, told WISN that Milwaukee authorities “don’t play a short game” on cold cases and said the renewed digging showed the long-running investigation was still active. That view fit the mood around the site. The police tape came down after the search ended, but the excavation left behind a fresh reminder that some of Milwaukee’s most notorious cases are never fully settled in the public mind, even when officers leave with no announced evidence and no clear explanation.
By Tuesday evening, April 21, the dig was over and investigators had packed up, but the case itself was not closed. Police said only that the warrant had been executed, no evidentiary items were found and the investigation remains ongoing, leaving the next public milestone to whatever detectives decide to disclose next.
Author note: Last updated April 22, 2026.