Twitter thread from Dave Cawley (investigative journalist, host of the podcast Cold) re: aerial photo from 9/09/19
(Includes transitional frame from aerial photo to excavation, indicating location):
https://twitter.com/ashergrey/status/1275853358235029504
A few more thoughts about the satellite image from Chad Daybell's property on Sept. 9, 2019. I've had a couple people ask why it matters or shrug it off as insignificant. Here's why these dark pixels (highlighted) are significant.
Prior to this, the best indications we had about when Tylee died came from the PC statement supporting Chad's arrest. They cited two pieces of evidence: Alex Cox's cell phone locations and Chad's text to Tammy about burying a raccoon.
These helped Rexburg PD know where to dig, but both have problems from an evidence standpoint. For one, Cox's cell phone pings include some outliers. And police did find animal bones in Chad's "pet cemetery."
The satellite image though provides photographic evidence that the area of disturbed ground from Sept. 9, 2019 was much larger than would have been necessary to dispose of a raccoon carcass. Or a cat or dog, for that matter. This is new information.
The fact the satellite was able to see the property at all is pretty lucky. The area surrounding the property was surrounded by opaque cloud cover. A matter of seconds difference could have meant nothing visible.
I get that for people accustomed to fictionalized TV/film portrayals of satellite imaging, this might seem underwhelming. But when you actually consider the physics involved, it's incredible. Sat imagery this good has only been publicly available for the last ~10 years.
We were able to take the geo-referenced image file into Google Earth and use the 3D viewer to approximate the perspective of
@KSL5TV's Chopper 5 on the day Tylee's remains were recovered, confirming our findings.
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