Found this post in another thread, but it would be inappropriate to reply to it there. It raises some interesting questions regarding what some people might convince themselves that the police (or someone else) planting evidence might entail.
There's no logic behind the "planting the body."
Never a cohesive, rational explanation for exactly how TH's remains ended up in SA's burn pit in a planting scenario.
- The planter or planters would have arranged to get TH's phone, camera, PDA and leave that in the burn barrel near SA's trailer, without being seen and without Bear the dog alerting to a stranger.
If we assume that TH had all these items on her when she died, then it's no extraordinary feat for her killers or someone who discovered her body to obtain possession of them.
Putting them (or their burned remains) doesn't seem like an extraordinary task to deposit in a 55 gallon drum - it would take only a matter of seconds to do this. No one noticing someone walking past a burn barrel doesn't seem like an insurmountable obstacle , especially if that person is wearing a uniform and a badge and is supposed to be there. Add to that the fact that dozens of people dressed in uniforms are wandering all over the place over several days, and no one has assigned any special significance to the burn barrels it would be extraordinary if anyone did notice and remember someone walking near one of them.
If Bear, the killer dog, is guarding the fire pit behind the garage, he might not have noticed what was happening on the other side of the garage in the front of the trailer 50 yards away.
- The planter(s) coincidentally arranged for SA to be seen dumping a bag in the barrel the afternoon of TH's disappearance, then arranging for a fire to be lit in the burn barrel.
Burn barrels for garbage don't need any special maneuvering to get trash for burning placed in them - it's practically a daily occurrence. Having a fire in a burn barrel doesn't seem like an extraordinary event either - why do people call them 'burn barrels', do you think?
- Someone would have to get a hold of TH and kill her, wearing the clothes she wore while at ASY.
If it turns out that TH was killed shortly after she left ASY, then it's no miracle that she'd be wearing the same clothes. I'm willing to bet TH wore the same outfit all day at every stop she made and never changed outfits between photography jobs that day.
- That person or persons would have to burn her body and get some of her remains intertwined within steel belts from burned tires.
If her body was burned, it's likely the people who killed her or people who found her body. Again, no big surprise there. Since it seems likely, based on testimony from cremains forensic expert Fairgrieve, that TH's cremains were moved to the burn pit it seems obvious to me that some of the larger fragments might get entangled with steel belts already there. The same would happen to anything large enough not to pass through.
- Then her charred bones, tooth (or teeth) and other burned items (jean rivet(s) etc) would have to be transported to ASY, along with the melded steel belts that intertwined with some of TH's bones.
Not necessarily (see above).
- Then those charred bones would have to be spread in the burn pit outside of SA's trailer.
It certainly would not require a rocket scientist to spread some ashes onto any location, even a fire pit.
- The planter felt it was important to put one or more of TH's larger bones in the burn barrel between SA & Janda trailers and did so without any detection or alerting by Bear.
Sadly, Bear was not able to testify at court about what he witnessed. I'm given to understand Bear barked. Did everyone drop what they were doing every time this 'vicious and aggressive' dog barked over the course of several days and investigate what he was barking at? If so, I'd be very interested in seeing those documents and testimony.
Looking at maps of ASY, the Janda burn barrels were not 'between' Steven's and Barb's homes, but almost on the far side of the Janda residence. While it may sound absurd to some to suggest moving some ashes and bone to that location, in my opinion it is even more absurd to suggest Steven walked past his sister's house with parts of a mutilated human corpse and start a fire in this distant location (50 or 60 meters by my reckoning) when anybody could have asked what the hell he was doing at any time. But maybe that's just me.
- This master planter would need to be at ASY long enough to do all this planting, without detection, having gotten past Bear the German Shepard, and also cause Bear to not bark at the stranger approaching with TH's remains.
I doubt anyone paid much heed to a barking dog, so the notion that if a dog barked the whole thing would unravel seems unrealistic to me.
- The cremains were not just sitting on top in the burn pit, they were discovered underneath a layer of ash and dirt, so the planter needs to make that happen. It was coincidentally very helpful for SA to leave tools at the burn pit that would help the planter plant those charred bones and steel belts melded with some TH bones in the pit -- shovel, hacksaw blade, hammer.
It doesn't appear to me extraordinary to have a shovel near a burn pit. But that's because I have a burn pit, and know that a shovel is a useful tool.
Not sure what the alleged significance of a hammer is supposed to be. No one has suggested it has anything to do with any crimes against TH as far as I have ever heard.
- Then the planter or planters need to make sure SA used his fire pit to coincide with TH's day of disappearance, knowing she had not been seen or heard from by anyone else from the time she was seen walking toward SA's trailer door.
The funny thing about the alleged fire(s) is that in early interviews no one seems to have noticed it or mentioned it when interviewed. It seems to me entirely plausible that the bonfire occurred on another day. Fires being a common occurrence, and nothing extraordinary happening during that week it would be easy to suppose something that happened on one day could just as easily happened a day or so earlier or later.
Of course, it does appear that TH's vehicle was observed leaving ASY at about the time we would expect it to have left if Steven had nothing to do with any crimes against her. There do seem to be witnesses whose stories do not conform to the narrative the prosecution wanted told about 'Steven being the last person to see Teresa'.
- The planter was able to make sure TH never used her phone again at the same time she happened to be at ASY and in the presence of SA.
TH appears not be be a person who was constantly on the phone. It doesn't seem like a very implausible thing to suggest that if TH was killed after leaving ASY, as witnesses claimed, that it could have been during one of those intervals when she wasn't on the phone.
- Then the planter or planters had to make sure investigators found TH remains that were buried under the layer of ash in SA's burn pit.
Since no forensic examination of the alleged burn site was made, I have no reliable factual data that supports the notion that the cremains were 'under' a layer of ash.
IIRC the bones were discovered when a cop tripped over a bone in the grass outside the fire pit.
They didn't make it easy for her remains to be found -- it required a trained cadaver scent dog to alert on the burn barrel which ultimately led investigators to SA's trailer, burn pit and cremains discovery.
That's not the story that I've heard. Apparently Jost and Sturdivant found a bone fragment some distance from the burn pit.
The big mean dog apparently did not stop the cops from exploring the fire pit and finding the remainder of the bones 'in a little pile' right on top:
A The bone fragments were concentrated within the pit, but there were some bone fragments intertwined within the steel belts, and I -- so the -- the -- the bulk of -- of the debris, or bone fragments, were located within the pit.
Q Sort of in a pile, in effect?
A Yes.
page 43
http://www.stevenaverycase.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Jury-Trial-Transcript-Day-13-2007Feb28.pdf
Oddly enough, no mention of having to dig under a layer of ash concealing this convenient pile of bone fragments.
- Then, in a master stroke of pure evil genius, the planter ensured that SA's nephew, the one who definitely helped SA clean a 3x3 area of SA's garage floor with 3 chemicals, staining his pants with bleach whilst doing so, and then helping his uncle start a large fire that burned for hours, felt traumatized to the extent that he talked to his female cousin and had her so troubled she seeked out counseling at the guidance counseling office at school, where she talked about blood, concrete, body being moved and her concern about her cousin.
This whole story turned out to be nothing. In sworn testimony this witness recanted these claims.
It has nothing to do with planting evidence.
Not even Agents Scully or Mulder would believe that one.
No one claims this is the necessary scenario for the planting of evidence - so making fun of this kind of strawman story gains us nothing.
Naturally, all MOO.
there are other items that if they were numbering sequentially, should have been taken around that same time. I believe those were all taken during the March search warrants.
