Dan Rassier: Former POI **Wrongly accused**

[human]

Guys, what are you doing? Heinrich confessed. Jacob's remains have been brought home. People have apologized to DR on this forum.

Why are you all analyzing him all over again?

That is a good point, I wish we could find more info on Heinrich to figure out what he was up to for 27 years.

 

[relay]

Guys, what are you doing? Heinrich confessed. Jacob's remains have been brought home. People have apologized to DR on this forum.

Why are you all analyzing him all over again?

I feel as you do . I'll go one step further. He was a suspect/POI for nearly 27 years of his life and had some awful things said about him, not to mention what goes along with being under police suspicion for abducting Jacob. To me he is also a victim and I can imagine what it was like living in his shoes for all those years. I would like it if he were now treated as a victim and that we respect this man as we are expected to respect victims here at Websleuths.

 

[IBsleuthin]

Sigh. I'm not saying anything about anything or anyone being guilty or picking at anyone or pointing any fingers.

Here I am only discussing what is in the legal document of Search Warrant #4. https://cbsminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/4-rassier-4.pdf

Go to search warrant #4 and slow down when you get to page 11. Then, have a sip of coffee, stretch, walk around your computer desk and come back and slowly read page 12.


WTH is all I can say. What in the #*ll.

Do you all understand the credentials these two dogs have and the training? These dogs independently alerted to that chest. WHAT'S WITH THAT.


???????

There is more to this story than we will ever know.

 

[human]

The blood and apparent blood splatter on the walls and on that cedar chest HAD to have been analyzed. Where are the results. Anybody? don't have the energy to dig through it all.

They were not able to analyze it. Waiting for advances in technology. As you know, blood analyzing has changed over the years, Thry used to have to have a large sample. Now it has gotten smaller. And they can analyze other parts as well now. But they needed more advances,

 

[Arnie M]

.

Everyone cuts themselves and bleeds at one time or another ... if it is in a house it gets cleaned up , if it is in a workshop or garage or shed it does not always get cleaned up. And if blood lands on wood and soaks in it cannot be wiped off.

Most people pass away in their homes so any older house will have had cadavers in it at one time or another. The (antique) wooden chest could have been used as a viewing coffin for a deceased child years ago. In modern day we have funeral homes for those things but at one time it was done at home.

To a cadaver dog it all smells the same.

 

[Sillybilly]

I agree that relying on the terrified children re a car was probably not a good idea. But as you know, they thought there was a car until 2004 when Kevin came forward,

Perhaps they thought that Heinrich and DR had some kind of relationship, Did they not question a different child sex offender that DR knew that lived out of state?

It says in the SW (Pg 1 of 4) that Kevin came forward in October 1989 and told a St. Joseph LEO that he had turned around in the driveway that night but the information never made it into the investigative file at that time.

... It is believed that the Hamilton vehicle is the one described by Rassier as being in his driveway between 9 and 10 p.m. on October 22, 1989 ...

Thus with DR's reported siting of a vehicle earlier in the day pre abduction, and the one that night being Kevin post abduction, that would tend to substantiate the boys' claim that they heard no vehicle at the time of the abduction.

https://cbsminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/4-rassier-4.pdf

 

[Trackergd]

They were not able to analyze it. Waiting for advances in technology. As you know, blood analyzing has changed over the years, Thry used to have to have a large sample. Now it has gotten smaller. And they can analyze other parts as well now. But they needed more advances,

What I find interesting is that what the dogs alerted on could have been anything. Where the chest was stored, it could have been urine and blood from a barn owl eating a mouse. Without a blood analysis report, we will be guessing forever. I don't think we can assume to any degree it was human blood or scent. Regrettably, it's not like the dog can sit down and give you a verbal analysis based on his/her experience sniffing humans, cats, rodents etc... Like SCSD, we may have been chasing our tails on this bit of evidence.

 

[Rocco]

What I find interesting is that what the dogs alerted on could have been anything. Where the chest was stored, it could have been urine and blood from a barn owl eating a mouse. Without a blood analysis report, we will be guessing forever. I don't think we can assume to any degree it was human blood or scent. Regrettably, it's not like the dog can sit down and give you a verbal analysis based on his/her experience sniffing humans, cats, rodents etc... Like SCSD, we may have been chasing our tails on this bit of evidence.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with what you have said. The scent the dogs alerted to could not have been 'anything' as you have stated. Cadaver dogs are trained to alert only to the scent of human remains. They would not have alerted to urine or blood of a dead mouse or cat or dog or any other animal. They're specifically trained NOT to do that.

 

[Cappuccino]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with what you have said. The scent the dogs alerted to could not have been 'anything' as you have stated. Cadaver dogs are trained to alert only to the scent of human remains. They would not have alerted to urine or blood of a dead mouse or cat or dog or any other animal. They're specifically trained NOT to do that.

I think far too much faith is placed in cadaver dogs. In one case on the Channel Islands they alerted to a piece of coconut shell, sparking off a media scrum reporting that a child's skull had been found. Dogs are not infallible no matter how much training they have.

 

[human]

.

Everyone cuts themselves and bleeds at one time or another ... if it is in a house it gets cleaned up , if it is in a workshop or garage or shed it does not always get cleaned up. And if blood lands on wood and soaks in it cannot be wiped off.

Most people pass away in their homes so any older house will have had cadavers in it at one time or another. The (antique) wooden chest could have been used as a viewing coffin for a deceased child years ago. In modern day we have funeral homes for those things but at one time it was done at home.

To a cadaver dog it all smells the same.

What about the blood spatter on the different locations? The reasons that LE thought that something had happened on this property. Should they have ignored it all?

 

[Rocco]

I think far too much faith is placed in cadaver dogs. In one case on the Channel Islands they alerted to a piece of coconut shell, sparking off a media scrum reporting that a child's skull had been found. Dogs are not infallible no matter how much training they have.

Sure---they make mistakes---just like people trained in any given area all make mistakes. But for every mistake one can find, there are plenty of examples of the success they have had.

 

[Cappuccino]

Sure---they make mistakes---just like people trained in any given area all make mistakes. But for every mistake one can find, there are plenty of examples of the success they have had.

They do, but I think some people place far too much faith in them. A cadaver dog alert is not evidence, its merely a presumptive test to give investigators a heads up on where to look for evidence.

 

[Rocco]

They do, but I think some people place far too much faith in them. A cadaver dog alert is not evidence, its merely a presumptive test to give investigators a heads up on where to look for evidence.

And that's exactly what they do---alert investigators as to where to look for evidence.

 

[Cappuccino]

And that's exactly what they do---alert investigators as to where to look for evidence.

Yes. And that's ALL they do. If the investigators look and find nothing, that's that, they don't arrest people on the strength of a dog alert. And yet there's posters here who will quote a dog alert as if it means something on its own, it means nothing unless the follow up search found evidence.

 

[human]

Yes. And that's ALL they do. If the investigators look and find nothing, that's that, they don't arrest people on the strength of a dog alert. And yet there's posters here who will quote a dog alert as if it means something on its own, it means nothing unless the follow up search found evidence.

Two different dogs and blood splatter. Should they have ignored it?

 

[Cappuccino]

Two different dogs and blood splatter. Should they have ignored it?

Two different dogs is still meaningless without actual evidence. What was the evidence that the substance they found was blood splatter? (Please don't tell me it was luminol).

 

[human]

Two different dogs is still meaningless without actual evidence. What was the evidence that the substance they found was blood splatter? (Please don't tell me it was luminol).

Is it in the search warrant?

 

[JanetElaine]

Yes. And that's ALL they do. If the investigators look and find nothing, that's that, they don't arrest people on the strength of a dog alert. And yet there's posters here who will quote a dog alert as if it means something on its own, it means nothing unless the follow up search found evidence.

It's not just posters here. The warrant clearly gives the credentials of both dogs including how they, in a nutshell, never alerted to any none-human cadaver scents - as in, walking straight by a dead cat and not even hinting in that direction. Both dogs separately alerted on the walls, lounge chair and chest.

 

[human]

Two different dogs is still meaningless without actual evidence. What was the evidence that the substance they found was blood splatter? (Please don't tell me it was luminol).

People are upset that Heinrich went on his merry way. Here there are cadaver hits and blood splatter and remarks. Should those have all been ignored?

 

[Cappuccino]

It's not just posters here. The warrant clearly gives the credentials of both dogs including how they, in a nutshell, never alerted to any none-human cadaver scents - as in, walking straight by a dead cat and not even hinting in that direction. Both dogs separately alerted on the walls, lounge chair and chest.

But that's perfectly acceptable in a search warrant. That's exactly what cadaver dogs are for - to give investigators a clue where to look. Its like sniffer dogs at an airport, if a sniffer dog trained to scent drugs barks at you, that gives the officers a reason to search and question you, but if they find nothing they let you go. They don't arrest you anyway and expect your defence to explain the dog bark. Some posters here effectively do just that when they quote "but the cadaver dog alerted..." as a reason to suspect someone, despite the fact that the dog alert didn't lead to anything.