The proper knot for tieing the cinder block caps would have been the clove hitch and two half hitches.
https://www.google.com/webhp?source...S595&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=clove+hitch+knot
If you read the article carefully, it sounds like the FBI are still not actively involved. The concrete blocks info came from SS. It sounds like the FBI agent was commenting on cases in general. What really makes me think that is the statement that the FBI would be there for whatever "Putnam feels that they need from the FBI." Does not sound to me that SS has requested their assistance either. At this point I have to say that it seems SS overrates his experience and capabilities and is guarding this case like a dog with a bone lest someone else actually solve the case. Of course, JMO.
I agree 100%, True Crime Lover.. Imo, the FBI's limited assistance is enabling Sheriff Sills from requesting the valuable investigative resources provided by the <GBI> Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Seems that the FBI would encourage Sheriff Sills to utilize all available investigative resources to prevent the Dermond murders from going unsolved.. Their inalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness were taken from them on that tragic day.. They deserve Justice!
4inch concrete cap blocks, 35 lbs each, two used to weight Shirley down.
I'm certainly no expert in construction, but I can tell you these are not the normal concrete blocks for house construction. They are used as masonry wall caps.
And I would think if a person were to buy concrete blocks specifically for weighing a body down, they would choose the common ones with the holes that you run rebar through...it would make tying rope to them much easier.
Nope, this person had these caps handy, and perhaps close by.
Yes, the common cinder block with holes would have been a much better choice of anchors and likely used by the perps if preplanned.
Guess, it is possible that the concrete caps were found in the D's yard, left over from landscaping projects or even from their boat dock/pier.
<snipped>
www.law.cornell.edu › ... › Subpart D
Legal Information Institute
Apr 1, 2014 - Installation instructions for concrete block piers must be developed in accordance ... the base of the main chassis beam and the top of the pier cap; ... in thickness or 2 inch or 4 inch nominal concrete block must be used to fill in 24 CFR 3285.304 - Pier configuration.
CFR
§ 3285.304 Pier configuration.
(2)
Caps must be solid concrete or masonry at least 4 inches in nominal thickness, or hardboard lumber at least 2 inches nominal in thickness; or be corrosion-protected minimum one-half inch thick steel; or be of other listed materials.
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'As time goes on in this investigation, the parallels to the Rogers family murders in FL keeps coming back to memory/deja vu.. Concrete cinder blocks were also used to anchor their bodies down, and as Mrs D's body, surfaced days later and discovered likely by unsuspecting fishermen'..
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http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/7893
stpetetimes.jpg
Angels and Demons
Haunted - Chapter 2
By: Thomas French
Sunset
One year had gone by since the murders, and then another, and now the investigators were deep into a third. They were working day and night, working weekends, putting off vacations, losing weight, gaining weight, growing pale and pasty and haggard, waking at 3 a.m. with a jolt and scratching notes on pads beside their beds. Their sergeant did not know if they would ever find the answer. As far as he was concerned, the case was not even in their hands.
Ultimately, he believed, it was up to God whether they made an arrest.
A born-again Christian, the sergeant carried a Bible in his briefcase. He had no doubt that both heaven and hell were real. He saw good and evil not as theoretical or philosophical concepts, but as absolute realities walking upright through the world. He believed in the forces of light and darkness. He believed in demonic possession. He took it as a matter of fact that Satan and his cohorts currently reigned over the Earth.
"I believe there are demons all around us," he would say, "just as I believe there are angels all around us."
And when he looked at the evidence from the case before them now, studied the photos of the bodies and the ropes and the concrete blocks, the sergeant had no doubt that he and the other investigators were pursuing someone driven by Satanic forces.
Of course demons were real. They were hunting one now.
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The police investigation was already hurtling in a dozen different directions. And already running into a dozen different complications.
Even the question of how the three women were killed could not be answered with precision. The autopsies showed that they had died of asphyxiation, but the medical examiner could not determine whether they had drowned or been strangled by the ropes around their necks. Because the bodies had been in the water for several days, it was no longer possible to tell if there had been any sexual assault. Still, the most likely scenario appeared to be that the women had been tied and gagged, raped and then dropped into the water, one by one.
As for how many assailants had been involved, that was anybody's guess. Some theorized that it would have likely taken at least two attackers to subdue three victims. Others pointed out that one person, pointing a gun at a mother and her daughters, would have had no trouble compelling one of the victims to gag and tie up the other two before she was restrained herself. However many assailants there were, the nature and scope of this crime made it seem unlikely that the killer or killers were novices. It also seemed probable that the killer had derived some sadistic pleasure from forcing each of the women to witness what was happening to the others.
They searched construction sites near the boat ramp, looking for concrete blocks that matched those found tied to the bodies.
They consulted with agents at the FBI's behavioral science unit, hoping to develop at least a preliminary profile of the kind of person who could kill three people in this fashion.
<snipped - read more>
