DETROIT — FBI officials today were silent on whether the latest lead on the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa’s body came from a claimant to the union leader’s identity.

Federal agents have been searching for Hoffa’s body on Hidden Dream Farm, a horse farm in Milford, Mich., northwest of Detroit. Hoffa, who lead the Teamster’s Union, had been scheduled to meet two organized crime figures at a restaurant in the area when he disappeared July 30, 1975, and presumably died.

Felicia Thurman, special agent in charge of the search for Hoffa, said, “Despite our failure to find Mr. Hoffa’s body this time, this remains an ongoing investigation and we have high hopes that information provided to us from certain individuals will prove fruitful. So, we’re disinclined to comment on the source of our current line of inquiry.”

In other words, no comment. Thurman did say, however, that although they’re suspending the search, which has involved geologists, archaeologists, 12 days of digging and the demolition of a barn, they might return. The horse farm once belonged to a Hoffa associate and several sources have confirmed that the person who provided the information to the FBI said Hoffa’s body was rolled up in a rug and then buried. AfterNet speculation has been rampant that the source is a disembodied person claiming to be Hoffa.

AfterNet spokeswoman Pamela Ookombe confirmed that there are 24 people who have claimed Hoffa’s identity, although none have been verified.

Reporters and photographers stationed outside the farm have seen FBI officials walking the search area with portable AfterNet terminals, further fueling the speculation.

The horse farm is just the latest proposed location for Hoffa’s body. Popular myth puts him buried in Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands. In 2003, investigators excavated under a backyard swimming pool in Detroit and the next year, also in Detroit, floorboards in a house were ripped up to search for bloodstains.