Zodiackillersite.com

The was no rain in the preceding days in the run up to the Lake Berryessa attack and the mean daily temperature would have been 26 degrees, with an average high of 37 degrees. That make up of ground would have been scorched solid and bone dry. A man of 200-250 lbs could not have left boot impressions in the ground. I remember Tom Voigt and company visiting the site on a dry day and jumping up and down on it, yet failing to leave a single impression. Those impressions were most likely made in favorable conditions, shortly after precipitation and then baked dry by the sun. Impressions in moisture free conditions such as these are highly unlikely to generate such detail. Similarly no footwear impressions were found at Lake Herman Road, the ground was frozen solid, but this time in freezing temperatures rather than being baked dry.

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KAPC/1969/9/25/MonthlyHistory.html?req_city=Napa&req_state=CA&req_statename=California&reqdb.zip=94558&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999

Seems to be a dusty impression rather a 'wet-and-dry' one..

QT

I have also wondered about this. But didn't the tracks lead up to Brian's car? I have to double check my notes.

One interesting rumor, is that at the Domingos/Edwards crime scene, Wingwalker boot tracks were found at the crime scene, which is one major reason that case is considered a possible Z crime scene. If that was the case, that would be certainly interesting.

morf13 wrote:I have also wondered about this. But didn't the tracks lead up to Brian's car? I have to double check my notes.

One interesting rumor, is that at the Domingos/Edwards crime scene, Wingwalker boot tracks were found at the crime scene, which is one major reason that case is considered a possible Z crime scene. If that was the case, that would be certainly interesting.

Yeah this report says the tracks lead up to Bryan's car door where Z wrote, I think this means, it's overwhelmingly likely the wing walkers belonged to Z

Yes this has always been taken as a given. The heel print definitely shows depth lines. That day had no rain from morning to 6.30 pm, under the scorching sun for at least nine hours, not only that it hadn't rained for many days under the same hot temperatures. I just thought those depth lines would require moisture. Dusty ground would not facilitate this detail. They were leading up to Hartnell's car, but in the preceding days they would have been leading up to somebody else's car, parked in a similar position. After all many people must have parked there. Also Deputy Dave Collins went to the scene of the crime, along with other people. Their boot prints or shoe prints should have been the control ie: if they couldn't make impressions in the ground how could the Zodiac. How could they know if the Zodiac left these impressions, it could have been anybody visiting the lake front from the parking area and returning back again.

There are multiple mentions in the report of the tracks leading down towards the Victims, and back up to the car door.

Watch this video of Tom Voigt trying to make boot impressions WATCH FROM 22.40.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvnOGTJ54uM&index=2&list=PLlennTkQxGFFBZrd53S38IO1e69D1nq3k

My understanding is the police used fellow colleagues to see who could make a similar impression and then recorded his weight.

I doubt they lied about performing such an obvious and empirical test, if this is what was said to have happened.

So if the police were able to leave impressions for the purpose of their test, the Zodiac was likely able to leave impressions earlier.

Also, it was into winter and much later at night when Jensen and Faraday were killed. Contrarily, at LB, the day was much warmer, warm enough for Hartnell and Shepard to not wear bulky clothing, or light coats even, warm enough for Fong to fish, and warm enough for three young women to sunbath in their bikinis near the lake.

(All of this was pretty much mentioned above in one for another. Just wanted to further clarify)

As for the ground being "baked and dried"...that depends on a variety of factors such as humidity, soil composition, et cetera.


I get what is being said about how the prints could have originated days earlier, but one has to imagine the cops could tell the difference between "baked" and thus old prints, and those that were laid recently. I could. You probably could too. Doesn't take a Sherlock for that one.

That and as I said, IIRC, the police performed the aforementioned basic test, which if true means then that the relevant ground area was not baked hard. Again, many factors contribute to a lack of shoe impressions at an outdoor crime scene.

Finally, from the image: ground looks granular to me, and thus not only capable of recording a print but also capable of being further atomized by weight, which means the Zodiac would have been able to leave an impression. Also: apparently his car left tire impressions on what appears to be a dirt road. If the car could leave impressions, it's not a stretch a 220+ pound man was able to do so either. I'd imagine the road would be much more hard-packed given its parallel nature to the sun's rays and the fact it was far more well-traveled than the area the Zodiac traversed.

http://www.zodiackiller.com/WWPrint1.html

http://www.zodiackiller.com/TireTracks.html


EDIT: Police report says one such shoe impression, bearing the "suspected tread pattern". was found in SAND:

http://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport17.html

Sort of a little off topic, but related I guess. I think those WingWalker tracks are indeed, BIGGER than 10.5"
In the photo, you can see where the number 10 is written, and the track continues on a couple inches further than where the 10 is written, not to mention that you an see the track looks bigger than the ruler of 11", and then there's this- viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2390

Yes they look 11.5 to 12 approx.
What's the number 26 on left (26 cm = 10.25 inches)