So the entire PLS was contaminated by horses and ATC's? Great... Even a rookie yokel policeman knows better than that.
Tracker Tom Brown himself would have a heck of a time sorting that one out and he's the best in the business... I'm going to hit the ATV shops and see what old tires are laying around.
Just unfathomable to me that a crime scene would be so contaminated...
I've found several articles (see below) that say there were only ONE set of tire tracks though. So maybe after they got the plaster cast of those tracks, they felt ok in driving all over with their 3 wheelers?
1. "Police speculate the kidnapper put Jacob in a vehicle and drove away.
Investigators made plaster casts of a tire track and footprints on a dirt road near 91st Avenue, the paved road where the boys encountered the man."
2. "Grafft, the FBI, and other investigators questioned a man at an Avon, Minn., motel Monday night regarding the kidnapping, but Grafft said the man had an alibi for Sunday night and
his car tires did not match prints of a car track made at the kidnap scene." ("a" as in singular tracks)
3. "They were about halfway home when a man wearing dark clothing,
black boots and carrying a pistol walked out of a long gravel driveway leading to a farm. 'He had a mask; it looked like pantyhose, on his head,' Trevor said." (So there should have been boot tracks.)
"A dog was unable to find any trail in the area Sunday evening, and on Monday a bloodhound from the Minneapolis Police Department also was unable to follow any trace more than 100 yards from where the boys' bicycles were found in a ditch off 91st Avenue." On Tuesday, deputies began searching an area from the abduction site out 12-15 miles. So the 3 wheelers shown in the video may have been from Tuesday.
Excerpts from: St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
October 23, 1989; October 24, 1989; and October 27, 1989.
This one below is from the Grand Forks Herald, on the 10 year anniversary, Oct. 22.1989. I think the part I have bolded is just bad reporting though, because I've never heard they matched the tire tracks and shoe print to a suspect who was later eliminated.
"Within minutes, law enforcement was on the scene.
They found a shoeprint and tire tracks and later matched them to a suspect, who was later eliminated. No arrests have been made. In 10 years, the Stearns County Sheriff's Department has had more than 28,000 tips and leads, and they haven't stopped looking."