The Duct Tape Match #3

[sleutherontheside]

As promised...

A thesis done for Masters @ LSU by Ms. Kellie Marie Gordon, May 2003. :thumb:

"A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DETERIORATION RATES OF TEXTILES AND THEIR ROLE IN DETERMINING POSTMORTEM INTERVAL"

Absolutely fascinating. Haven't made it all the way through yet...

http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0407103-131120/unrestricted/Gordon_thesis.pdf

How positively delightful. Hard to argue against this.



SOme of my favorite parts.....

A specific type of deterioration encountered by textiles is biodeterioration, which
is decay caused by organisms, both by chemical and physical deterioration (Cronyn
1996:241).

Polyester/cotton blends frayed in an
orderly pattern; the weave structure of the materials exhibited a grid pattern that would
lose one thread of the grid at a time by fraying. Polyesters exhibited a mangled fraying;
the fabrics featured no loose strings as with cotton fraying, rather the edge of the fabric
appeared to be clumped.

All the excavated soil was sifted through; the excavation continued several inches below
where the polyester sample was located; however, no traces of the cotton sample were
recovered. The surface polyester endured little deterioration, whereas, the surface cotton
was incredibly weak and had to be peeled off the stake.

However, certain deteriorative factors, such as insect and scavenger activity, the
disruption of the weave structure as evidenced by gaps among bundles and increased
transparency, as well as fading and tensile strength, can and should be assessed by
investigators when forming an estimate of PMI

The field research project in Baton Rouge and
Fredericksburg indicated that cotton would show marked deterioration within two
months, yet polyester did not exhibit any changes until the end of the second interval with
a PMI of five – six months.

 

[Imbackon]

How positively delightful. Hard to argue against this.



SOme of my favorite parts.....

A specific type of deterioration encountered by textiles is biodeterioration, which
is decay caused by organisms, both by chemical and physical deterioration (Cronyn
1996:241).

Polyester/cotton blends frayed in an
orderly pattern; the weave structure of the materials exhibited a grid pattern that would
lose one thread of the grid at a time by fraying. Polyesters exhibited a mangled fraying;
the fabrics featured no loose strings as with cotton fraying, rather the edge of the fabric
appeared to be clumped.

All the excavated soil was sifted through; the excavation continued several inches below
where the polyester sample was located; however, no traces of the cotton sample were
recovered. The surface polyester endured little deterioration, whereas, the surface cotton
was incredibly weak and had to be peeled off the stake.

However, certain deteriorative factors, such as insect and scavenger activity, the
disruption of the weave structure as evidenced by gaps among bundles and increased
transparency, as well as fading and tensile strength, can and should be assessed by
investigators when forming an estimate of PMI

The field research project in Baton Rouge and
Fredericksburg indicated that cotton would show marked deterioration within two
months, yet polyester did not exhibit any changes until the end of the second interval with
a PMI of five – six months.

I think this sounds like an excellent witness for the PROSECUTION! Unbelievable what sleuthers can find out there!

 

[Imbackon]

Oh i agree, was just pointing out that tape without cotton is made by shurtape. Is that not the distributor for Henkel?

Apples and pumpkins might grow in the same grove, but ya wouldn't compare them to eachother!

 

[LambChop]

I just watched the video on the making of duct tape on "Thehinkymeter" and it was very informative. All duct tape is made with a center layer for strength. Cotton the most common but the fact that the remains duct tape had no center layer would lead us to believe it originally had a cotton center which was destroyed by the elements. JMO

 

[AZlawyer]

Somewhere in this doc dump that I had to review in tiny chunks in between practicing law :banghead: there was a page--p. 22 out of some number in the 30s--that showed dates ending in 2006 and a handwritten note that those were the last dates that the duct tape in question was made.

 

[beach]

Somewhere in this doc dump that I had to review in tiny chunks in between practicing law :banghead: there was a page--p. 22 out of some number in the 30s--that showed dates ending in 2006 and a handwritten note that those were the last dates that the duct tape in question was made.

This isn't the "p. 22" doc that you referenced, but in the doc linked here the rep from Shurtape confirms the 2006 manufacture date.

 

[wenwe4]

JWG...you make my head hurt! lol

Okay, I've been looking at this and here's what I've come up with:

It's all from the same roll (lmao)...seriously though,

The right edge of Q62 was not attached to the left edge of Q63.
The right edge of Q63 was DEFINITELY attached to the left edge of Q64.
The right edge of Q64 was MOST LIKELY attached to the left edge of Q104.
The right edge of Q62 MAY HAVE BEEN attached to the left side of Q66.

I will now inundate you with pictures hoping you can see what I see. On my little handy-dandy screen calipers the read-out between two consecutive Henkel brands in the same location laterally is 260.

*NOTE ON Q104 - if you take into account the creases the measurement over to the first Henkel stamp from the left closely matches what is needed to be torn from the right side of Q64 - reading would be 225.

bumping

 

[Grammy Jean]

I am bothered by the testimony today that during the search of the A home the Henkel brand duct tape was only on the gas can. I do not at all buy the JB story but I remember his opening of follow the duct tape. JB is strongly implying only GA could have put that henkel duct tape on that gas can. Somebody who has followed this longer than I tell me why I should not worry. Can the Prosecution place that henkel duct tape in KC's hands?

 

[cloud9]

I am bothered by the testimony today that during the search of the A home the Henkel brand duct tape was only on the gas can. I do not at all buy the JB story but I remember his opening of follow the duct tape. JB is strongly implying only GA could have put that henkel duct tape on that gas can. Somebody who has followed this longer than I tell me why I should not worry. Can the Prosecution place that henkel duct tape in KC's hands?

I don't know, but I have every confidence in the prosecution to clear this up.

 

[coloradoteacher]

GA did testify that he put the duct tape on the gas can. There is also video of him using the duct tape to hang missing posters. Does this mean that it wasn't stored in the garage right next to the garbage bags that match the ones at the crime scene? No.
IMO, the SA will call GA to the stand again and discuss his involvement with the duct tape.
He probably used it while hanging missing posters. ICA had just as much access to the house as he did. He can also testify to where he normally stored the tape before everything happened.

 

[Ricki]

I dunno if this has been mentioned, but I have a thought here and wanted to talk it out: Do you remember who said that KC stole her duct tape? A girl? Missing duct tape that was in her purse? Was it Dante's girlfriend? Didn't Dante race cars? Would he use the tape?

Did she use the duct tape to secure that flag she wore at the no clothes party? Am I recalling that correctly? Was that the duct tape she took from her friend?

 

[dani]

I am bothered by the testimony today that during the search of the A home the Henkel brand duct tape was only on the gas can. I do not at all buy the JB story but I remember his opening of follow the duct tape. JB is strongly implying only GA could have put that henkel duct tape on that gas can. Somebody who has followed this longer than I tell me why I should not worry. Can the Prosecution place that henkel duct tape in KC's hands?

Sorry Grammy Jean, I can't take away your worry! You got me worried now! Worried enough to do a little searching on "follow the duct tape". I came across an interesting read that discusses today's (6/11/2011) testimonies, including the duct tape and the pavers: http://andreadreamin.com/2011/06/11/bombshell-bugs-pavers-too/

One of the replies to the article says this about the duct tape: "I bet that tape was in the KF truck and when it was discovered that duct tape was found on the skull, he got rid of it. Gee, it may very well slap him in the face for disposing of it!"

I had always assumed (I know, I know!) that the duct tape was some that George had since their time in Ohio. I guess because "Ohio" was printed on the duct tape. But now, after learning that the ONLY place there was any use of that tape was the gas can, it seems odd. You'd think there would have been some other use of it if he had that tape all along. Now I have to wonder where the tape came from? For Casey to have used it I thought it was in the garage along with the trash bags and the laundry bags. I thought George just grabbed it from the garage to hang posters with.

And where is it now? Did they use it up? Does KF (Kid Finders) have it? It couldn't have come FROM KF if Casey used it July 16th, 2008. I'm having a hard time "following the duct tape"!

 

[roseofsharon]

There was no misinterpreting his position on the duct tape on the gas can in his depo. He swears over & over that he did not put that piece of tape on the gas can! "He would never have put it on there in such a sloppy manner!!" Although the SA continually tries to get him to budge off of his position on that, he won't go there. He repeated the whole "don't try and confuse me..." bit like in his ZFG depo.

I saw GA state that he did indeed put the tape on the gas can, as the plug was missing from it when he got the gas cans back from KC -- when KC said here's your "_______" gas cans.

GA went on to say that he put the duct tape on the hole so the gas vapours would not escape into the garage.