IIRC they couldn't match the towel with the flower to any other in the photo's of the home, unfortunately, that is all they had to go by. The one bathroom didn't have a bath mat, IIRC it was the downstairs bathroom by Joey's office, so what does that mean? Does it mean that that it's "missing"? or does it mean they just didn't have one in there? The upstairs bathrooms didn't have toilet seat covers, does that mean they are missing? Also, IIRC they didn't find a bath mat in the graves.
They did find the little hooded towel that they were able to match with photo's of one or both of the boys from when they were little. But I don't know that that towel was in the home at the time, maybe it was in the Trooper? I have similar hooded towels that I got when my boys were babies, so it's been almost 20 years, they were great for the beach and I still have them and keep them in my truck for my dogs when we are at the lake. Some of the items found in the trooper remind me of things that I would and probably still do have in my truck, be prepared for anything when you have kids and animals and even a sick husband, but JMO.
Part 2 Transcript of Charles Merritt Preliminary
2 Q Did you find all of the stuff that we've just talked
3 about being from the house, did you find any evidence from the
4 graves or gravesites that was consistent to those items we've
5 just talked about?
6 A Yes.
7 Q Can you please itemize those for us?
8 A In the grave itself there was like a black nose, eyes and
9 a whisker and some padding consistent with the bathrobe that was
10 depicted in the picture with Joseph, Jr.
11 In the gravesite there was a black backpack containing
12 what was a paintbrush and looked like, maybe, like a small pick
13 or hand garden tool. These items were depicted in a photograph
14 of Gianni wearing a similar black backpack and Joseph, Jr.,
15 posing, holding the same type paintbrush.
16 Joseph McStay was wrapped in a tannish woven blanket or
17 article of cloth that had seams on it, which appeared to be
18 consistent with the cover from the futon that was missing at the
19 time they went missing, the family went missing.
20 There was a blue painter's tape that was in the white
21 shop towel, in the grave. That white shop towel was consistent
22 with the roll of shop towels that was found in the garage.
23 There was also another white towel which had flower
24 imprints on it and was consistent with what would be a typical
25 bath towel that would be found in a house. However, there was
26 no other in towels found in the McStay house. There was nothing
27 to compare it to. They were all gone.
28 Q Did you find any white terry-type material consistent
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1 with a bath mat?
2 A Yeah, there was some small patches of white terry cloth
3 material consistent with either a bath mat, because photographs
4 depicting the McStay house showed that there was a toilet cover,
5 the typical kind that's sold in, like, sets, where you have a
6 floor mat and another rug in front of a shower. However the
7 floor mat and the rug for the shower was gone, and only the
8 cover for the toilet seat was there. And also it would be
9 consistent with the terry cloth that was depicted as missing off
10 of one of the hooks.
11 Q In the excavation of the gravesites, did you notice
12 whether any type of footwear, shoes or sandals, anything of such
13 were found in the excavation process?
14 A None were found.