I did a search and found a long post I wrote that I’m throwing out here because it addresses things we’ve brought up in these recent posts:
From Sept.13, 2019:
“Just a few minor thoughts...first is that LE seems to think he put the body in the front passenger seat of the Tacoma. It might not have been completely intact but perhaps not entirely dismembered then, either. I think it was wrapped up in something because the alternative is ludicrous but, yes, something leaked. If he used a tarp or rug (hmmm: MT), it was another point for not being smart in MOO because neither of those items—especially a tarp—is designed to hold in fluids. Tarps are intended to keep fluids out but not to absorb, and rugs may absorb unless they’ve been treated with stain repellant but then fluids can flow or drip off—or the rug touches another substance like a car seat and some of the fluid comes off on the car seat. In my years as a veterinary assistant and with many pets over the years, I learned that moving a (sadly) deceased animal such as to bury or have cremated is best done by first wrapping it in something absorbent like a blanket and then putting that into double trash bags. I wouldn’t put a pet in just a trash bag anyway but it’s a bad idea because trash bags tear and things can leak if blood or other substances were released such as from an accident. Even contractor bags can be torn. He could have used Tyvek like they use to wrap houses or to wear on hazardous or dusty sites. FD didn’t know her disappearance would be noticed so quickly so he thought at first he had more time.
At the same time, by leaving her car at the park, he wanted it to seem like someone else had abducted her. In that case, it would seem more logical that her body could be discarded (horrible) fairly close by like in woods or wherever people commonly dump bodies there. I have no stats on this but it seems like when people abduct and kill a stranger, they just try to dump or bury the whole body in a remote place ASAP. I say that because the longer you keep it around (gross), the more likely it is that you’ll be caught with it. If the aim is to avoid connection with the body, dismembering it takes some time and it also increases the amount of surfaces where evidence might be found. (Awful.) You know how they tell you not to wash chicken before cooking it because doing so can splatter salmonella or other chicken grossness all over? Kind of like that. (Yuck.) Thus, dismembering is not a good idea regardless but this is FD, arrogant and ignorant in MOO.
I also have thought that he might have had a prepared grave ready for some time. The thing with that, though, is that no matter how long the hole has been there, when you put something in it, you will have leftover and clearly disturbed soil and the soil will look disturbed especially from a distance like with aerial photographs. Environmental firms use historical and current aerials to try to determine areas of disturbed soil, burn piles, etc. that might indicate underground storage tanks or disposal of possibly hazardous materials. You can try to tamp it down but loose soil is attractive to animals and if you tamp it down too hard, there’ll be a depression when the soil settles and some is lost to runoff. I rather think that FD wouldn’t care if her body were found as long as it was thought that someone else did it like a person at the park with no cameras. So I feel like dumping her body would have been a choice of his except that it all became discovered more quickly than he thought.
It would have been much more risky to bury or dump her body on his property than elsewhere because if it were found, that’s a link to him, not a random stranger at the park. But then again, he never thought he’d get caught.
If he had decided on dismembering and/or just placing a drum in the lake, he would have needed to do that somewhere like at his house. The drums they use on construction sites like to contain soil cuttings from when exploratory borings are advanced for geotechnical foundation or environmental site-assessment testing purposes are sturdier and designed with locking lids you secure and hammer on/lock because the soils could contain oil or hazardous materials. You don’t usually do a geotechnical foundation study for a regular house because the live loads aren’t that heavy and the houses don’t cost that much but for an expensive house and property like those, banks would want that done here at least. But maybe not for FD’s way of financing.
Anyway, putting a person who weighed 88 pounds or even 120 in one wouldn’t be that hard in MOO. I imagine it would be prudent to add something in the drum to fill it and weight it down further or make it easier to roll but those drums are made to withstand corrosion and they’re heavy themselves. I can’t see them floating. People dump drums of hazardous waste even like waste oil in some places because it’s cheaper than paying for proper disposal especially if it’s a highly toxic hazardous waste. Getting one in a truck isn’t that hard, either. FD must have a Bobcat but even if not, he has ramps or boards or even a lift gate on his truck. People roll the drums or “dance” them over to the vehicle and roll them up a ramp or winch them, etc. FD would have the equipment. Farmers, mechanics, etc. do it all the time with waste oil, etc.
You DO have a lot of water sources there and he was familiar with them. Maybe that’s not what he did but I don’t see those drums corroding anytime soon and he’d be dumb to put holes in the drum since DNA-containing pieces could leak out. Starting a hole would accelerate the breakdown of the drum. What I wonder about that possibility, though, is once you get to the water, you either have to dump the drum near the edge or move it to a boat and then go out to the middle of the water with it. Moving a drum into and out of a boat would be a giant pain in my view because you’d need to lift it out and up. So, in that case, I’d vote for off the bed of a truck into the water, so it’d be near the edge, or a place where you could back up onto a pier, etc. It’d still be close to where people might be. Discovery would be much likely if it’s a body of water where people can swim or boat. Some reservoirs and lakes here don’t allow either but do all of yours? I’d look at one that doesn’t if there is one. Or, yes, a retention pond like the one where the guy saw a car via Google Earth and the car and man had been in there 22 years. Retention ponds like for dewatering aren’t for swimming and often are secluded or protected by cranky geese so they would be a possibility.
Why the bloody items weren’t left with the body makes me think the body was dumped hurriedly. Also, people who abduct and dump a person don’t often have a lot of used cleaning supplies with them because maybe those could contain DNA and that just seems like something random abductors wouldn’t do but a person obsessed with order like FD might. Or not. I have no idea, clearly.
I don’t know if he did any of this. I just thought I’d share some possible scenarios that might fit or be discounted by those you all have.
I’m terrible at estimating time and visualizing distances and directions so I can’t even try to help there at all.
MOO.
HopeForTheBest,
Sep 13, 2019Rep