This is FASCINATING info. Do you have a theory that would indicate where the larger elements of the body would be, given the potential for animal scattering seen here? If i'm following correctly, it would seem that the skull would likely be elsewhere, perhaps a great distance elsewhere. I have been trying to reconcile the cadaver dogs hits at the lake as early as 11/25 with a body dumped in the mountains on 11/18. Any ideas?
Thank you! I have only started looking at this case about a week ago, so I have a lot to catch up on. From the reports that I have read, the bones were found under 10 miles from MR's house. After inspecting the search photos, it appears that the search staging site is located at 9.2 miles from MR's house.
Photo of the Search Staging Site:
Google Maps of the possible staging site:
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Middle+Mountain+Road,+Bayfield,+CO&daddr=Vallecito+Lake,+San+Juan+National+Forest,+Colorado&hl=en&ll=37.482227,-107.526943&spn=0.001207,0.002256&sll=37.697916,-107.535353&sspn=0.01017,0.013797&oq=middle+mountain&mra=ls&t=h&z=19
It was mentioned that the bones were found in a 1.5 mile area. It was also stated in the following article that a shoulder bone and a leg bone were found.
http://www.9news.com/news/article/343074/188/Redwine-death-will-likely-remain-undetermined
I remember other people mentioning that a finger bone was found near coyote feces. This makes sense if whole limbs are often carried by larger animals like coyotes, and smaller animals can help separate them. A shoulder bone, leg bone and finger bone seem to make up a wide range of bones for a 1.5 mile stretch. If these were found real close together, then this might be why LE thinks that DR's body was taken to the area postmortem. IMO, the skull would be North of the shoulder bone, maybe North of the 10 mile mark turnout. If you look at the Google Maps link, you can go up the road about a half a mile, and there is a turnout with a red pickup in it (image dated 8/7/2011).
It could be a possible place to back up and hide a body. Then there would be an easy exit back on to the road. This turnout is 10 miles from MR's house. We could look at a 1.5 mile radius from the staging area, for more Google Maps Sleuthing. I am not sure if the 1.5 miles is road miles or if terrain makes up part of that stretch.
Here is great excerpt, on Clandestine Graves from the same SAR PDF linked above:
"Citing FBI statistics, Vass indicates that clandestine graves are typically no deeper than
2.5 feet, are “close” to water or “near” a poorly traveled road, are 10 feet away from the nearest large tree, and contain a clothed or wrapped corpse which will be face down"....
"Recovery sites are largely rural (51%). The geographical profile for the recovery sites includes:
1. Remote areas with vehicle/road access
2. Near or in water
3. Within ½ mile of an intersection
4. Dirt roads are favored over paved roads
5. Body often within 150 feet of access road
6. Body located to downhill side if sloped ground is present."