Evidence search

[Greg D.]

Bum deal.... thats one less search pattern we will be able to run, we will miss you guys this weekend, but thats how things go I supose. conditions are perfect for this weekend, I guess the water level is going to be down even more than it was last week. hopefully our weather cooperates

I thought the diver who found the rusty old gun said it was just laying right on top of the silt, but I could be mistaken.

Dunno why people seem to think that if you thow it in the water cant be found

I also agree with you Gary I think that we should double the distance from the throw but I think we should also double the distance left and right to account for any discrepency in the troopers throw location, according to him he thought that the guy was going to take a shot at him, I'm not sure how all the factors involved would affect your idea of the exact point you saw them throw the guns.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

I'm not sure how you guys are calculating the landing point of the gun, but be sure and take into account that the current would take it on downstream a little, and the gun could have bounced off something on the way to the water.

 

[Gary D.]

I'm not sure how you guys are calculating the landing point of the gun, but be sure and take into account that the current would take it on downstream a little, and the gun could have bounced off something on the way to the water.

Even in a fairly strong current the weapon should be within a third of the depth from where it went in. Example: With a 100' depth it should be inside a 33.3' circle. That is quite an area under most conditions.

With the officer being in an OH S*** mode, You need to search the entire legnth of the bridge. His mind was slowing down picking out details while the world around him was moving like a Bat Out Of H E Double Toothpicks. Just figuer your search area is all of it.

Gary D.

 

[Greg D.]

the way we figured a starting point was to mark where the trooper could best say that they were thrown. We then simulated the drive and both throws with two like sized weapons. We had two boats on the water to watch where they hit. They were painted flouresent colors witch was nice because some of the paint sluffed off on impact and we dropped buoys on those spots ant took GPS readings.

We started the search back about 50 or so feet from the splashes, and coverd a 300ft swath on the North side of the bridge, on the east end right about where the support structure starts... here is a picture
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=1371&y=26015&z=11&w=1

In the troopers defence after they had spike stripped the car and when the guy tossed the guns they were only traveling between 35 and 40mph so he could have got a good idea of where they were but I'd say we should start on the east side and cover at least halfway and about 100 out...

But I don't make the decisions

 

[scubamoo]

Well, needless to say, I (and I'm sure many others) hope you're successful and look forward to hearing from you here.

If it's not found this time, I'd advocate a grid search... If you need to do additional searches, PM me and I'll bet I can get some volunteers from our shop to help. I need as much advance notice as possible though.

Happy hunting!