State's Exhibit 18.
The shoe and other items floating in the creek water.
Evidence Gathered.
The list of evidence collected from the
area where the children were found included the clothing (E1 - E14),
discussed extensively on another page. Other items are
listed below. The missing numbers correspond to evidence
collected from suspects and other sites.
- E-1A
One bag of clothing found in the area of the homicide including: pair
Jordache 33-34 jeans, two Bic razors, one piece plastic bag, one pair
white socks, one medium black shirt, one large kacki short sleeve
button up shirt, and one Road Runner plastic bag.
- E-15
Plastercast shoe print
- E-16 Plaster
shoe print
- E-17 Wooden
stick found at crime scene
- E-18 Mud with
shoe tread design
- E-19 One
brown bag containing 1 hook and 1 lenght (sic) of rope found at crime
scene
- E-21 One
brown box containing impressions of possible fingerprints in mud
- E-41 One
paper sack containing another nylon sack for strength only. Inside
sacks are contained: one claw hammer, three steel balls, and one small
knife. Items found in ditch near the scene of homicide.
- E-42 One
glass Mason type jar containing a water sample from the area of
homicide.
- E-49 Piece of
aluminum wire found on the scene by Detective G. Gitchell
- E-57 Knife
found near scene
- E-130 Doral
cigarette package foun near at scene (sic) of
homicide
- E-132 Wooden
slats recovered near scene of homicide. Trace evidence and
compare to any visible wounds on victims as a match
- E-138 and
139. Sticks found near crime scene.
The shoe print below (as
represented in E-15, 16, and 18) was introduced as evidence at trial by
the defense, because it was much larger than the shoe sizes of the
defendants.
Defense
Exhibit 4C, photo of a footprint near discovery site.
The rusty hook (E19) was picked up Detective Ridge as shown in stills
from the crime scene video, below.
Rusty hook, E19. Crime scene footage.
South of where the bodies were
found were several slats of wood connected in the form of a section of
a fence. Near this was several free slats (E132).
Slats of wood. Footage taken after bodies were recovered.
Sticks. One stick floating in the water near the bodies was taken into
evidence immediately (E17). A stick that was holding down the
clothes was collected two months after the crime (E139) along with
another stick of similar size (E138). E138 and E139 were
presented as possible murder weapons.
The ruler shown below is 36 inches. E138
and 139 were approximately 42" long and 3" in diameter.
Sticks
collected as evidence.
Evidence Left Behind
A cigarette pack is
among the evidence collected. While it, the rusty hook and some of the other items
above are probably garbage and unrelated to the crime, there are other
items that were not collected. This is not because the crime
scene was riddled with garbage, only an occasional piece of trash is
apparent in the crime scene videos and all of these are summarized
below. It is easy to imagine one or more of these could have
been handled by the criminals. The items shown below are not
listed among those submitted for trace evidence or fingerprints.
A liquor bottle (circled). Crime scene footage.
A different liquor bottle (circled). State's Exhibit 38.
A
styrofoam cup and a Sprite? bottle (each circled). Also, one of
the shoes and what may be the cub scouts cap (circled).
Photo, State's Exhibit 18.
A can? (circled) Crime scene footage.
A second crime scene video is shown being made but was not available to the defense (below).
 
Second cameraman next to Detective Gary Gitchell. Crime scene footage.
The police and prosecution made claims that one
bank was uniquely slicked over as though it had been cleaned.
They also claimed that the nearby meadows had no signs of tire
tracks and could not have been used for bringing the bodies to this
location for disposal. Thus, the murders must have taken place
here. A second video could have helped evaluate such claims.
The slicked down bank.
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