I highly doubt though, the car in the picture would have driven right smack through the blood where David had been killed. That track had to have been left before he was killed. It continues on (no matter which way it came in or out) in the Vallejo direction.

Wouldn’t the car then drive straight into the border fence that separates the turnout from the adjacent property? It’s traveling parallel to David’s car. I just think the ridges from the tracks are from a car traveling through wet muddy ground. I just can’t buy that the Benecia Police would ignore such a potential clue. they already by the time this pic is shot had Owens come by and say he saw David’s car and he believed another car parked right in the area where those tracks are…. Hey anything is possible in this case that’s for sure…..

All I am saying is that it looks like fresh tracks which must have been there before David was killed.

I think it’s a very fresh track, once the ground was hit by the sun, like morning dew. I don’t think you would get that track when the ground is at 20 degrees. To me it shows a car driving into the area when that ground is wet, muddy. That’s why it’s so pronounced when all the other tracks around it aren’t. It’s real fresh, not from the night before. And the fact that BPD didn’t take a cast of it, even after Owens tells them what he believes he saw. I think BPD had to know the origin of what vehicle made that track, and discounted it. Even without Owens for BPD to miss that, another vehicle’s treads right in front of them. Yikes….

How do you explain no trail through the blood when it is that close? Do you think someone would have driven through the puddle of blood if it were a site being investigated?

By the next morning that area obviously wasn’t taped off. How do you explain BPD missing it? Cause they knew what vehicle caused it. You think they just missed it? As they’re combing the area for any clues, they don’t see that? Notice the other areas where there’s no tread at all, You see tread, then none, then you see tread again, and then none. The tread doesn’t show until you see the vehicle go on that downhill slant, that’s where it would be muddy, where the water would accumulate. David’s blood wouldn’t make the area muddy, so no tread. See all those tracks leading towards LHR, some of them had to come from all those vehicles the night before, the hunter’s, the Yours, just minutes before the incident, they all headed towards Benecia when they left, so they would be on that right side of the turnout, yet no fresh treads.

Relative to the average, the coldest day in December 1968 was December 21. The low temperature that day was -1°C, despite the police report stating -5 Celsius in the evening hours of the 20th (22 Fahrenheit) compared to the average of 7°C, a difference of 8°C. The photographs were taken early on December 21st just after sunrise, which occurred at approximately 7.20 am. This can be seen by the long shadows trailing from the men in the turnout, along with the car parked up. The shadows are being cast slightly north of west. With the sun rising in the east.
The temperature never rose above zero during the night. No vehicle would have produced these deep tread patterns, even during the late morning hours of the 21st, the temperature never rose above 2 degrees Celsius and the ground would not have thawed.
Those tread patterns were likely days old. But certainly prior to 11.15 pm December 20th 1968.

What makes a tread track fresh is the amount of water that’s in them, so the tread tracks here are very fresh, the atmosphere, evaporation hasn’t even set in yet. A couple day old tread track and all the water has evaporated in that tread track, so you would have a hard cast of a tread track. those tracks are fresh, if you took anything and pushed against it it would leave an indentation, cause it’s a fresh track, it’s loaded with water. There are other pics, I wish I could figure how to copy them over, they were taken that night Dec. 20th, rambler is still in place, David’s body has been removed, you see where it was, and where the blood stained ground is (his head wound). In the pic a cop is standing right where the tread tracks would be, perfect lighting, absolutely no tread tracks on the ground. Those tracks came, not from the killer’s car. They weren’t there when the cop is standing there. So we know for fact the car that made those tread tracks was not Z’s car. the pic doesn’t lie. There’s a set of pics, it is the 4th one down in the set. I’ll try to figure how to get them over here.

Easiest way for me to explain where pics are. Go back to top of this thread "Crime Scene Stills", go down 14 threads from this one you will see a thread named "Lake Herman Road Crime Scene Photos WARNING GRAPHIC", open that up, go down to 4th pic in set. Clearly shows cop right where tread would be in pic, no tread there on the evening of Dec. 20th, 1968. Picture is taken that night.

Here are the tread marks taken on the night of the murder, to the left of David’s body, towards the photographer. Same in the video stills.

I think it’s definite it was before. I am just curious as to when.

The ground frozen? I question that. It takes a long time for ground to freeze, and this wasn’t Minnesota. During the day, the temperatures certainly weren’t cold enough to create frozen ground…and you don’t necessarily need mud to create a track. I don’t see any frost…not enough to cause wetness. The ground (for sure) wouldn’t have had time to freeze (if it did) by 10:15 pm when they were first seen there. http://www.zodiackiller.com/LHRPR28.html

What I find interesting is no mention of studying any tire tracks. I find that odd.

If it was moist enough that night to leave tracks, then by now the police would be sure from which direction the couple entered the turnout, Vallejo or Benicia, by identifying the tread pattern of the Rambler, they would have identified a likely exit direction of the killer from the turnout, who by all accounts parked approximately 10 feet to the right of their Rambler, but nothing, they don’t know for certain. The police report said the ground was frozen solid and no visible tire tracks leaving the scene. If the Rambler arrived at 10.15 pm, there certainly isn’t any evidence from which direction it arrived. Probably because the ground was frozen solid like cement. Unless it’s all a big conspiracy by police.

Well the cops were there on the scene. They say the ground was frozen, then it was. End of that part of the story. Hey this could be Z’s tracks, yeah if the only thing you consider are the treads you see are in the area that Owens says he saw a car, taken from a snapshot the following day. You have to consider the police, detectives that were on the scene, they discounted the treads, if the treads were even there when they investigated the area that evening. If they were there, they cast them, the only fresh treads in the area, they cast them. They didn’t need to. either cause the treads weren’t there when they were investigating, or they knew what caused those treads, or they were total screw ups. What I keep hearing is, the treads were there when they were investigating, they didn’t know what vehicle caused the treads, and they decided they weren’t important enough to cast…. One vehicle for sure that was right there in the area would be the ambulance. And the ambulance would pull right in as close as they could get, check David out, put him on their cart, secure him in the vehicle, and then decide do we back out or is there room to drive around the front of the Rambler, if there was room that’s what the ambulance would do go forward.

…. One vehicle for sure that was right there in the area would be the ambulance. And the ambulance would pull right in as close as they could get, check David out, put him on their cart, secure him in the vehicle, and then decide do we back out or is there room to drive around the front of the Rambler, if there was room that’s what the ambulance would do go forward.

Sounds like a logical answer…except the ambulance would have driven over David’s face. And, the ground would have been just as frozen for the ambulance as any other vehicle.

I simply thought it looked like a fresh tire track. No cop conspiracy! Bad police work? A possibility.

There is always a conspiracy Tahoe.

Soze