Fruitless landfill search for body of Phoenix woman cost nearly $1.5M

PHOENIX — A fruitless search of a Phoenix-area landfill for the body of a woman missing for more than a year cost nearly $1.5 million, it was announced Thursday.

The Phoenix Police Department said it was responsible for more than $1.3 million of that cost. The rest was paid for by other agencies or the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

The lion’s share of the spending — about $1.1 million — was used to pay for construction services in an attempt to locate the body of 34-year-old Christine Mustafa, who hasn’t been seen since May of last year.

More than $180,000 was spend on overtime.

The search ended Friday. More than 275 volunteers from multiple agencies sifted through 43,001,653 pounds of debris in the attempt to locate her body.

Sgt. Alan Pfolh said the search will continue in other locations.

“The landfill was the best place to search based on the evidence that the detectives had so far,” he said.

The search for Mustafa’s remains began back in October, more than five months after she was originally reported missing.

Police extended the time frame allotted for the search by three weeks back in December in order to give detectives more time to comb through a Phoenix landfill.

Mustafa’s ex-boyfriend, Robert John Interval, has been charged with first-degree murder in the case. He has pleaded not guilty and is expected to go on trial by Feb. 22.

KTAR News’ Ashley Flood and Martha Maurer contributed to this report.

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