Darn! I was hoping for more than charred wood! :/
I think they said "apparent" because that's what they assume it to be and will confirm by further testing?
I'm thinking he either tried to burn the body like was mentioned above or that he burned her clothing which would have decomp on them. Clothes would burn up completely, no?
I feel pretty strongly this has to do with this case. I can't think for any other reason why campfire ashes would be buried in a 2.5ft hole other than something nefarious. There is something in those ashes that wasn't wanted found. It's too coincidental that it's that close to where he was.
I'm curious about camping in these areas. Can you just drive your car off the road and camp where ever you'd like? No specific camping zones?
One more thing...can someone tell me what the deal was with the rental car?? He left to go camping with the boys in the van? Then he got a rental car when? TIA.
I can't think for any other reason why campfire ashes would be buried in a 2.5ft hole other than something nefarious.
Darn! I was hoping for more than charred wood! :/
I think they said "apparent" because that's what they assume it to be and will confirm by further testing?
I'm thinking he either tried to burn the body like was mentioned above or that he burned her clothing which would have decomp on them. Clothes would burn up completely, no?
I feel pretty strongly this has to do with this case. I can't think for any other reason why campfire ashes would be buried in a 2.5ft hole other than something nefarious. There is something in those ashes that wasn't wanted found. TIA.
The depth of the hole bothers me for a camping scenario. I'm not a camper. Haven't camped since I was young. I came to prefer luxury hotels with spas etc lol.
So... the depth of the hole - that seems to be far deeper than campers would ordinarily dig for firepits, to bury trash, etc.
Do any of y'all camp? What's the average depth you'd typically dig to for a firepit or to bury trash or whatever when you're camping?
Whoa, that picture on that page is interesting. Thanks.
Here are a couple of other references that might help you out. Dogs trained exclusively to detect human decomposition will not alert on feces or urine.Okay, I'm googling cadaver dogs, and all the sites I'm looking at are saying the decomp they hit on includes blood, feces, urine, semen.
I'm also seeing they're starting to call them "decomposition dogs" rather than cadaver or HRD dogs.
ETA: Okay, just found a HRD dog certification test, and it says the dog should *not* alert to urine.
Section 1: TYPE OF HUMAN REMAINS
K-9s must exhibit the ability to distinguish the presence of human remains or human decomp
material in a field setting. Other settings are optional to the certifying officials relative to actual
real world situations. Human remains may consist of human blood, human tissue, human bone,
adipocere, liposuction fluid, cremains, teeth, hair (used in combination of other material) or other
remains that are human in origination and nature. URINE will not be considered as human
remains. Real human remains will be used for testing, no pseudo materials allowed during
testing!! Minimum size of hide will be 4 ounces. Hides will be placed a minimum of 30 minutes
prior to testing. Hides may or may not be concealed from the canine and it is the handlers
responsibility to protect the canine from coming into contact with the remains.
http://www.taskcanine.com/articles/Human_Remains_Detection_Certifi.pdf
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Forensic Search Dog (The primary focus of this paper)
A canine that has been specifically trained to indicate a scent source as being from decomposed human tissue. Such animals are also trained to exclude (deconditioned to) the scent of human urine, feces, and semen and will not alert on residual scent from a live human; and have never been trained to locate any scent other than that of decomposed human tissue.[/FONT]
Okay, I'm googling cadaver dogs, and all the sites I'm looking at are saying the decomp they hit on includes blood, feces, urine, semen.
I'm also seeing they're starting to call them "decomposition dogs" rather than cadaver or HRD dogs.
ETA: Okay, just found a HRD dog certification test, and it says the dog should *not* alert to urine.
Section 1: TYPE OF HUMAN REMAINS
K-9’s must exhibit the ability to distinguish the presence of human remains or human decomp
material in a field setting. Other settings are optional to the certifying officials relative to actual
real world situations. Human remains may consist of human blood, human tissue, human bone,
adipocere, liposuction fluid, cremains, teeth, hair (used in combination of other material) or other
remains that are human in origination and nature. URINE will not be considered as human
remains. Real human remains will be used for testing, no pseudo materials allowed during
testing!! Minimum size of hide will be 4 ounces. Hides will be placed a minimum of 30 minutes
prior to testing. Hides may or may not be concealed from the canine and it is the handler’s
responsibility to protect the canine from coming into contact with the remains.
http://www.taskcanine.com/articles/Human_Remains_Detection_Certifi.pdf
It was unlikely the apparent wood gave the cadaver dogs a "false positive," Merritt stated. The cadaver dogs are trained to detect human decomposition as opposed to flakes of dead skin. He also noted it was interesting that the charred pieces were found buried about 2 ½ feet in the ground.
ummmm... what's "apparent" wood?
I'm feeling pretty confident about my theory that JP moved the body after the search of his WA home on Aug 27, 2011. The media had tried to talk to JP a few days after he left for this camping trip and were still not able to reach him at his home.
It takes 17 hours to make that drive.
Here is a closer in look at the map near Topaz Mntn:
Those of you very familiar with this case may see on the map places that JP has gone rock hunting before - could you let me know? TIA. I speculate that he may have again chosen an area familiar to him to re-bury the body. He would have preferred to have a spot to go to that is on the way to Topaz, so he could dig up a grave first without having a body with him at the time. Then after digging up the body, drive back to that spot and quickly bury the remains.
Also, they can check JP's cell phone records and establish cell tower pings on the nights he went "camping" in late August.
His kids were with him, so could have valuable information as well.
MOO.
I'm feeling pretty confident about my theory that JP moved the body after the search of his WA home on Aug 27, 2011. The media had tried to talk to JP a few days after he left for this camping trip and were still not able to reach him at his home.
Here is a map from his home to Topaz Mntn:
[URL="http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1207/mapwatopaz.jpg"[/URL]
It takes 17 hours to make that drive.MOO.
Route that through Ely, Nevada - and take another look.
Even if Josh met someone halfway, he'd still have had to be gone many more hours in that rental car, than he was .... and the total miles would have been more than "several hundred".
Ely and Topaz are linked, and may be dual crime scenes. I'm just not seeing someone taking a decomposing body along freeways. Plus, the rental car would have had tons of forensics in it.