Police Cease Investigation Of Missing Log From Tribe's Sacred Land: Report

MAHWAH, N.J. — Police have exhausted all leads into an alleged hate crime against the Rampough Indian people and have stopped their investigation. The Record reported.

Three of the 2,000-pound logs that create the outline of the logs and form the outline of the Rampough's longhouse were reported missing March 20, police said.

Police Chief James Batelli said the department's investigation was "thorough" and that police walked along the Ramapo River for eight miles interviewing people and looking for the logs, but did not find them, the report said.

Officers also watching hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from a nearby homeowners assocation of a nearby bridge that is the only way of accessing the longhouse, the report said.

Although tire tracks were found near where the logs were reported stolen, Batelli said in the report that the footage did not show any vehicle leaving with the logs on it. Authorities previously said that heavy equipment would be needed to remove the logs.

Someone left a note in wood chips on a slate slab near the logs that read "these logs will be gone soon," Batelli previously said.

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