Evacuees Gratefully Go Home

Families streamed back into an Irvine neighborhood Saturday as authorities completed an excavatin of biomedical researcher Larry C. Ford’s backyard that unearthed weapons and military explosives.

More than 200 residents were evacuated from their homes Wednesday when police began digging up Ford’s backyard. The drug company executive was under investigation in connection with the attempted murder of his longtime business partner. Ford apparently shot himself after police searched his home.

On Saturday, residents in the quiet Woodbridge neighborhood expressed relief at being back home. Many had been separated from family members and pets, and were forced to alter their routine. Still, some expressed alarm about the cache of arms as well as bottles of what the FBI described as suspicious substances taken from Ford’s home over the last week.

“I’m concerned about the things they were saying about the chemicals they found and whether they found all of it,” Mary Lee said as she returned to her home from the Irvine Hyatt Regency.

Allison Aleshire took her Australian shepherd and bunked with a friend while the rest of her family went to the Hyatt, which does not allow pets. To keep in regular contact, she purchased a wireless phone for her teenage daughter.

“Boy, it feels good,” she said upon arriving back in the neighborhood. “We’re really grateful to be home. You put your life on hold, and it’s great to be back to normal.”

County health officials and police assured residents that the neighborhood was safe and that Ford’s house had been cleared of all potentially hazardous materials and arms.

“If I lived in this neighborhood, I would feel confident about moving my family back into the area,” said Mark Horton, director of public health for Orange County.

Authorities are still trying to unravel the mystery of the Feb. 28 shooting in which James Patrick Riley was wounded, and Ford’s suicide three days later. The men were partners in the Irvine company Biofem, which is developing a female contraceptive suppository designed to halt the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

A day after the shooting, authorities charged Los Angeles businessman Dino D’Saachs, a longtime friend of Ford, with driving the getaway van in the Riley shooting. The gunman remains at large.

Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato said Saturday that while attention was focused on what was hidden in Ford’s house, investigators elsewhere had continued working on the attempted killing.

“We’re getting there,” he said. “We’re still following a lot of different leads.”

Police think that the motive for the attempt on Riley’s life was financial gain and have warned friends and business associates of Ford that they could be in danger, Allevato said. He said no one has been told to get a bodyguard or is receiving police protection.

Authorities found six canisters buried six feet deep underneath a concrete slab in Ford’s backyard. Inside one, police found two 1 1/4-pound packages of C4 explosives with what appeared to be military identification numbers and blasting caps.

Allevato said the only way Ford could have obtained the explosives was on the black market or by stealing them from a military supply facility.

X-rays indicated that all six canisters contain automatic and semiautomatic rifles and ammunition, he said.

Allevato said the approximately 4-foot by 4-foot hole had been commercially dug, but he didn’t know who did the job. He said Ford’s wife was aware that he was burying something in the backyard but didn’t press her husband about the contents.

Ford’s son, Larry C. Ford Jr., said Saturday that the family knew his father had buried weapons in the yard, but they didn’t think much of it and never talked about them.

The canisters will be opened at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Los Alamitos.