I’ve been lurking here for a week, so this is my first post. This case breaks my heart. I see myself at 13 when I look at those 2 sweet girls. I grew up in the 70’s - a different time, although these kinds of murders still happened then. But their carefree, artistic nature reminds me of myself, and it tears my heart out that someone took their beautiful lives from them. Having said that, This is my take on things (FWIW).
The main goal of LE, as I see it, is to bring a solid case to trial - a case which a good defense attorney can’t bring forth enough reasonable doubt to get the guy off. I appreciate the time they are taking, and the fact that they are willing to publicly change directions (despite the backlash they’ve received) to get this case solved, but solved beyond reasonable doubt. I want them to dot every “i” and cross every “t”. I think they know who this guy is, but they HAVE to place him on that bridge on Feb. 13, 2017 at 2:30 ish, with those girls. The parked car, I believe, is key. I think they have DNA, most likely. I think they’re trying to put these final pieces together for a solid case. We don’t have any idea what they have! There is no way for us to know. I think we’ll be shocked at what we learn when this comes to trial. But I, for one, want to be patient and I want this guy NAILED for this crime!
As far as the sketches, obviously the second sketch is the “one”, but I also think we’ll be surprised at how this guy may look like elements of the sketch, but not exactly like it. I think the CHIN - the protruding chin - is key. I heard someone discussing this on a video and I wish I could remember which one, but they mentioned “focus on the chin”. It is an unusually long chin - prominent enough that it was memorable to the witness. I’m a portrait artist. It’s a difficult task to draw a likeness of someone even from a photo or if they’re sitting in front of you. Why? Because everyone has their own perception of how a person looks. I’ve drawn/painted some portraits and people thought they looked EXACTLY like the portrait I produced, and others thought it favored the person, but didn’t look exactly like them. My perception was, I had captured the likeness. You see? People look at things differently, from their own perspective. So to expect this sketch to look exactly like the guy is folly. What is the most prominent element? The large nose and the chin. Often when people meet someone in passing, only the most prominent features actually stand out.
That’s simply an artist’s take on it, and MOO.
As far as the video and stills, pixelation fools the eye. I’ve been sent badly pixelated photos before (I’ve done a bit of photo retouching in Photoshop in my career). This was a video with stills captured from it. The movement causes such “screen trash” and pixelation, you think you see all sorts of things which aren’t really there. It looks like, in the video, he is talking. That movement would cause even MORE pixelated screen trash around his head.
I think the stills and the video were released as a general reference for the public, i.e., does this person generally look like someone you have seen or know? If I saw my husband, for instance, in a short video, no matter how pixelated, I would still know it was him most likely. I’ve put BG’s photo in photoshop and tried to make it out. I get something different with every filter I use. Its going to be hard to get a good enough view of his face from that video. Some people think the first sketch looks more like him. Not really. Not when you look at each frame. Someone posted his head not too far back in this thread. That is the BEST enhanced still shot I’ve seen. There again - I see a LONG chin. I’m not sure about the hair, or if there’s a cap or his hood is up.
There again, this is strictly MOO, based on what limited knowledge I have. I hope they nail this piece of excrement!
