Some thoughts:

The wristwatch:
The position of the wristwatch appears to have been changed slightly from pic #21 to pic #2. Instead its obvious that the time was modified, too. The picture with the wristwatch on the floor may give an accurate time of her murder – 9.07pm – while it’s time has later been changed to 12:20am.

The cars:
Pic #1 appears to be on the same parking lot as pic #2 (note the ground marking and the fence in the background). Not sure if or how pic #3 is 100% related to the case. It appears to not be made on the parking lot, nor close to the alley where CJB was found.

The alley:
It bothers me a bit that CJB appears to be closer to the road on pic #2 than on pic #1. This may be explained due to the alley going down or different camera objectives/perspectives. Nevertheless you can see a structures of bushes on the right side. Then again, on the left side, pic #2 DOESN’T show such bushes on pic #1 (right side). IMO, this is absolutely weird. Especially as you can still see the building structure (pic #2, left side) but not the bushes standing into the road, as they clearly (and this is my problem with it) on pic #1. This I cannot explain at all, mainly as I think they may have taken away her body first before any cutting of some bushes – if they did so at all. Regarding the dark structure on the left side of pic #2: This might be a shadow.

QT

Thanks for putting up the photos. For me, seeing them makes it feel just a little more real.

I think the watch/time concern can be explained by the watch itself was still working. And so it only shows the time when the pics were taken maybe?

Also, I looked at what you mean with the plants/shrubs etc. and I don’t think there is any foul play. I believe the dark structure on pic 2 is the chain link fence at a steep angle.

It looks to me like alley pic 2 was taken up against the back fence line where there are two fences meeting (I’m using alley pic 1 here)

Thanks for putting up the photos. For me, seeing them makes it feel just a little more real.

I think the watch/time concern can be explained by the watch itself was still working. And so it only shows the time when the pics were taken maybe?

Also, I looked at what you mean with the plants/shrubs etc. and I don’t think there is any foul play. I believe the dark structure on pic 2 is the chain link fence at a steep angle.

It looks to me like alley pic 2 was taken up against the back fence line where there are two fences meeting (I’m using alley pic 1 here)

Good point regarding the watch, very likely that it was still running or had simply stopped at 12:20 when being photographed the third time.

DNA: What about some slushy dirt under the watch? Any watch which has been worn for a while has some sort of ‘human dirt’ under it. Most of this dirt is coming from sweat, skin tissue, human cells. Cleaning that one for reasons of a DNA test would be a most efficient way to get the DNA of CJB’s killer, wouldn’t it? Again, this could be compared to DNA to be found under stamps and envelopes of Zodiac letters.

Is there any possibility to do such a request? Where would the watch be now, at Riverside police department storage?

UPDATE – Sent a request today to the Riverside cold case department regarding any dirt/DNA under the watch. Guess they won’t answer but hopefully at least will try to get some DNA from it, if not even done so yet.

QT

Thanks for putting up the photos. For me, seeing them makes it feel just a little more real.

I think the watch/time concern can be explained by the watch itself was still working. And so it only shows the time when the pics were taken maybe?

Also, I looked at what you mean with the plants/shrubs etc. and I don’t think there is any foul play. I believe the dark structure on pic 2 is the chain link fence at a steep angle.

It looks to me like alley pic 2 was taken up against the back fence line where there are two fences meeting (I’m using alley pic 1 here)

Good point regarding the watch, very likely that it was still running or had simply stopped at 12:20 when being photographed the third time.

DNA: What about some slushy dirt under the watch? Any watch which has been worn for a while has some sort of ‘human dirt’ under it. Most of this dirt is coming from sweat, skin tissue, human cells. Cleaning that one for reasons of a DNA test would be a most efficient way to get the DNA of CJB’s killer, wouldn’t it? Again, this could be compared to DNA to be found under stamps and envelopes of Zodiac letters.

Is there any possibility to do such a request? Where would the watch be now, at Riverside police department storage?

UPDATE – Sent a request today to the Riverside cold case department regarding any dirt/DNA under the watch. Guess they won’t answer but hopefully at least will try to get some DNA from it, if not even done so yet.

QT

That is actually a very good point QT. I don’t know why I never thought of this. I remember exactly what you are talking about. I don’t wear a watch often anymore, but when I did, I remember when I’d take it off and give it a look over, I can remember seeing what you were talking about. Sweaty scummy build-up on the back side that laid against my arm. I’d always clean it, but within a few days it was back in the same shape again. Especially in really hot months.

UPDATE – Sent a request today to the Riverside cold case department regarding any dirt/DNA under the watch. Guess they won’t answer but hopefully at least will try to get some DNA from it, if not even done so yet.

QT

QT, did you ever get a response? I would think that even if the watch had been mishandled somewhere along the line, and the back wiped clean, sweat and possibly other DNA-carrying material from the owner would’ve seeped into the band.

UPDATE – Sent a request today to the Riverside cold case department regarding any dirt/DNA under the watch. Guess they won’t answer but hopefully at least will try to get some DNA from it, if not even done so yet.

QT

QT, did you ever get a response? I would think that even if the watch had been mishandled somewhere along the line, and the back wiped clean, sweat and possibly other DNA-carrying material from the owner would’ve seeped into the band.

No, I did not. What is possible, however, is that the hair/skin found under CJB’s finger nails has been analysed? With no match in the dna database? This good be a good reason to not answer such a request.

QT

The FBI nemo shows they recovered 4 brown hairs on a small bit of a blood clot in Cheri’s hand. That hair yielded only mtDNA, not nuclear DNA. Only nuclear DNA can be added to CODIS and other databanks. When you have full nuclear DNA you can say when there is a match that only 1 out of 2 billion persons would randomly match.

With mtDNA, you can only say 5% of the American public have this mtDNA or 2% of Hispanic Americans have this mtDNA. If a suspect does NOT match mtDNA known to be from a killer, he can be totally excluded. But even if a suspect matches mtDNA you can only say ‘He is in the 3% of the American population that has this mtDNA."

Back in 1966 they had no awareness of DNA. The watch was probably handled by the bare ungloved hands of police, evidence techs and others. I doubt that today they could get reliable DNA from any sweat that was on the watch band. But it’s possible. In some cases they have recovered "touch DNA" from clothes or objects 10 or 20 years later.

The FBI nemo shows they recovered 4 brown hairs on a small bit of a blood clot in Cheri’s hand.

Okay, time for two of my dumb questions… Do we know if the 4 brown hairs are from the scalp, or could they be from the killer’s arm? I’m just picturing a guy stabbing her and I’d think she’d be trying to defend herself by trying to stop his arm, not scratch his head.

If they are from the scalp, I wonder how long the hairs are because that could be significant.

Are these things known?

I’m pretty sure they were head hairs. I think it indicates that. The FBI Report is here somewhere.

Hi, I was wondering how radically the areas where the VW was parked and the body was found have changed in terms of buildings added or subtracted. The college and library have surely undergone major developments, but does anyone know if the houses surrounding the scene are still there?

Hi, I was wondering how radically the areas where the VW was parked and the body was found have changed in terms of buildings added or subtracted. The college and library have surely undergone major developments, but does anyone know if the houses surrounding the scene are still there?

The houses are no longer there. There are some photos at the time of her death compared to today here. You can google street view as well.

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=102

Thanks Tahoe, I appreciate the info and the link to the photo thread.