GUILTY TX - Alanna Gallagher, 6, Saginaw, 1 July 2013 - #5

[human]

Apparently, it was a piece of plastic (I'm thinking part of a garbage bag). Here is the tweet that accompanied the pic:

"Pic of our camera's screen. FBI evidence collectors appeared to zero in on piece of plastic in road"

From: https://twitter.com/twoodard8

I think that a poster's suggestion that we figure size of the object based on the aggregate in the road.

I walk on a road similar to that and tonight, if no one else does anything before then, I will do a measurement.

I go with my hubby, SIL and daughter. Ugh.

I hope I can stand them getting all over my case.

My one granddaughter goes to middle school in the fall and the bus will let her off about a mile from home on country roads with no sidewalk and barely any houses.

This will be good review for my daughter to know that there must be another option made. We leave the US for several months, so we are not an option.

 

[Pensfan]

Thanks, wfgodot. Receipts were found, but I couldn't find any link showing what was purchased on those receipts.

 

[IBsleuthin]

Nice thinking. I would imagine a lot of folks by less 'innocent' items on amazon because they don't want to be seen buying them in public. ( think *advertiser censored* for example< NOT in this case, just as a random example) But they don't realize the electronic trail is much bigger than just going into a brick store and buying it. I'm sure all stores have cameras up now anyways so it's not like you can purchase ANYTHING without someone seeing.

As I have recently learned, with the bar codes on items once they are purchased in say, the big 'W' mart, the item can be pinpointed to the exact place, time, till. All they then have to do is go to the security camera at that time and there the person is.

In the situation I just learned about, it made one man innocent and another one who NO ONE suspected was the culprit.

 

[TxLady2]

whats to say that anything LE is saying is how it really is....

and why say anything that lets the perp know they are closing in on them or know who it is. sometimes its better to let the perp think "whew I got away with it" make a mistake, slip up, not fleet, etc...and when LE has a tight case, then they move in.

they have to say something to the public, obviously. but I doubt they will show their cards to the public.

JMO

Sometimes they want the perp to know they're closing in, so they won't get too confident and go after some other child. It works both ways. They're sometimes more likely to make a mistake when they know LE is getting close. At the same time, they don't want to put other children at risk, and if a perv thinks he's getting away with it, he'll go out and do it again.

 

[GingerzMomma]

Page 28 of this unknown person's thesis shows the rate of decay for varying fabrics based on the location variables (soil ph, elements in the soil, temperature) of his/her chosen testing site.
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0407103-131120/unrestricted/Gordon_thesis.pdf

Thank you!

If I'm interpreting data correctly, it appears some items were still intact after 18 years. Granted, it depends on the variables you stated.

Opal's body appears to have been exposed to the elements from her time of death (thus skeletal remains). As far as I know the entire shoes were intact. Seems to me there would be some evidence of her clothes there after only 4 or 5 years. My grandparents have had items made from cotton & blends in various places all over the farm that are still there (granted, there wasn't organic decay they were associated with).......

 

[Pensfan]

I think that a poster's suggestion that we figure size of the object based on the aggregate in the road.

I walk on a road similar to that and tonight, if no one else does anything before then, I will do a measurement.

I go with my hubby, SIL and daughter. Ugh.

I hope I can stand them getting all over my case.

My one granddaughter goes to middle school in the fall and the bus will let her off about a mile from home on country roads with no sidewalk and barely any houses.

This will be good review for my daughter to know that there must be another option made. We leave the US for several months, so we are not an option.

That's scary and outrageous! What can they do?

 

[IBsleuthin]

I agree.



That's crazy. Why would some guy volunteer such info to the police and even put himself in the vicinity of Amber Hagerman's disappearance when no one asked? Amber disappeared only half an hour's drive from Alanna and Opal, BTW.

BBM because this is of special interest.

 

[human]

I go to rummage sales. I went to one today and a teacher was selling unused rolls of duck tape with different patterns.

I sometimes get a bag from a rummage sale.

Sometimes, I bring bags I have to estate sales so people have enough to give to their customers. Generally speaking, I use reusable bags that I have in my car, but if I forget or am going in for the "only one item", I sometimes end up with bags.

So, I hope MY bags are never used in a crime. I hope I never up with bags that were used in a crime. Or any other item.

I have often thought about that. My fingerprints on stuff conveniently used in a crime. That would make a good book. Too bad I can't write it

 

[human]

That's scary and outrageous! What can they do?

The law here is middle school walks if the distance is under a mile. So, the bus can let them off under a mile from the home. The driver let's them off on a corner in the middle of nowhere. No other kids on our block, which is 3/4 mile long. They live next door to us.

So maybe she can pick her up at school ,but she is in a grad program with clients, so who knows, They will have to figure something out! Maybe SIL can arrange his schedule,

 

[IBsleuthin]

According to this he is 43 years old today. In 1999 he was 29 years old.

http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-prisons/inmates/richard-lee-franks/42246/

Now ain't THAT COMFORTING... Still alive and well? 43 that's young by today's standards.

 

[IBsleuthin]

The question still remains...WHERE are her clothes? They gotta be somewhere.

I haven't seen anything describing what she was wearing that day?

 

[Pensfan]

The question still remains...WHERE are her clothes? They gotta be somewhere.

I haven't seen anything describing what she was wearing that day?

Check the scanner thread.

 

[JaimeInLA]

Was Opal Jennings' killer thought to have been "railroaded" or framed? Why do some people believe the wrong killer was put in jail? (I apologize, but my coffee hasn't kicked in. I'm too sleepy to google this for an hour this morning. Does anyone already know this answer and can quickly post it? TIA)

I have done about 6 hours of reading on the Opal Jo Jennings case over the past week. I don't believe her killer is in jail. The guy they have in jail has an extremely low (to the point of being mentally disabled) IQ. He said he wanted to confess and tell them everything, but many of the facts he provided did not line up with the evidence, and he was never able to say where the body was buried. She was later found in a field 10 miles away from Ft. Worth.

And the biggest reason for me -- he was never CHARGED with her murder. He is in jail for confessing to kidnapping. Nobody has EVER been charged with the murder of Opal.

Again -- I believe these 2 cases are related. The 2 girls look almost identical to each other! As we know, child kidnap/murders are very rare. What are the chances that 2 VERY similar looking 6 year old girls are abducted and murdered in the same suburb?! They chances that the 2 cases are both isolated have to be astronomically low -- nearly impossible.

 

[carole]

The question still remains...WHERE are her clothes? They gotta be somewhere.

I haven't seen anything describing what she was wearing that day?

I think finding the clothes she was wearing that day will be key to solving Alanna's murder. IMO, LE knows what she was wearing from one or all of her parents.

 

[JaimeInLA]

Likely because he was convicted before body was found.
So there was no proof she was dead at the time of the trial.

This happens all the time. If the DA has evidence to support murder charges, they will go back and file new charges and put the killer in jail on murder charges. There is NO WAY they would let a kidnapper serve out a kidnapping sentence and risk him getting out on parole if they had evidence to also support a murder charge. If there were evidence to tie him to the murder, there would have been murder charges.

 

[Pensfan]

I have done about 6 hours of reading on the Opal Jo Jennings case over the past week. I don't believe her killer is in jail. The guy they have in jail has an extremely low (to the point of being mentally disabled) IQ. He said he wanted to confess and tell them everything, but many of the facts he provided did not line up with the evidence, and he was never able to say where the body was buried. She was later found in a field 10 miles away from Ft. Worth.

And the biggest reason for me -- he was never CHARGED with her murder. He is in jail for confessing to kidnapping. Nobody has EVER been charged with the murder of Opal.

Again -- I believe these 2 cases are related. The 2 girls look almost identical to each other! As we know, child kidnap/murders are very rare. What are the chances that 2 VERY similar looking 6 year old girls are abducted and murdered in the same suburb?! They chances that the 2 cases are both isolated have to be astronomically low -- nearly impossible.

The girls don’t look exactly alike, IMO. They both have brown hair though.
http://cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/alanna.jpg
http://www.saginaw-texas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Opal-Jennings.jpg

 

[JaimeInLA]

The girls don’t look exactly alike, IMO. They both have brown hair though.
http://cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/alanna.jpg
http://www.saginaw-texas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Opal-Jennings.jpg

I did a side by side for everyone. To me, they look very much alike. Alanna is on the left, Opal Jo is on the right.

 

[wfgodot]

Here's a theory: this was a crime of opportunity committed by a person who no longer lived in the neighborhood but who still lived in an adjacent community, or one close by, and may have been traveling through Alanna's Saginaw neighborhood, either cruising for a victim or just passing through; the body was dumped while the perpetrator was still in a comfort zone, i.e., before the perpetrator headed back to his or her current residence.

Feel free to tear this theory apart. What speaks against it, according to what we know? (You won't hurt my feelings as I just made up the theory as a talking point.)

 

[Jo in Calif]

Here's a theory: this was a crime of opportunity committed by a person who no longer lived in the neighborhood but who still lived in an adjacent community, or one close by, and may have been traveling through Alanna's Saginaw neighborhood, either cruising for a victim or just passing through; the body was dumped while the perpetrator was still in a comfort zone, i.e., before the perpetrator headed back to his or her current residence.

Feel free to tear this theory apart. What speaks against it, according to what we know? (You won't hurt my feelings as I just made up the theory as a talking point.)

Probably would have to have been in a motor home to do what was done to her, taping, bagging, clothing removal and tarp.

 

[wfgodot]

Probably would have to have been in a motor home to do what was done to her, taping, bagging, clothing removal and tarp.

How about a roomy van? A work van, say? Something like that. Or what if the crime scene involved an outdoor location?

(I should have put this stuff in my original little talking-point theory.)