Rescan Enhancement- A Crime Scene Rorschach- New Object Found

By Steve Hodel | December 7, 2009 |

 
 The below Email and photos received from E.S. after he examined and rescanned the original crime scene photo using his “new shadow enhancement tools.” 

We see with the brain, not the eye, which perforce brings into the mix our individual personal experiences along with our inherent bias, so no two people see the same image. (For television viewers, I highly recommend Charlie Rose’s ongoing series on The Brain. Last week’s segment addressed this very subject.)

Thanks to E.S.’s rescan, seen below, I am now leaning more toward the object still being a watchband, but I do think the “stripped bands” could well be shadows cast from blades of grass. With this closer look, I do see what appear to be similar shadows elsewhere in the photo. We know a man’s military watch was found near the body (and went missing from LAPD evidence room). What we don’t know is if that watch had a band attached or not? The object could be another watchband, different from the one seen in the Man Ray photo, one with a plain canvas band. (Keep in mind the watch wasn’t discovered until a week after this photo was taken, so the object could easily have been interpred as being preexisting debris.)

 In answer to E.S.’s question, I do think that the “extension” is a blade of grass, which appears to be lower and thinner than “the object.”

 

E-mail from E.S. received 12.07.09 “A Little More Digging”

Steve,

 
I could not resist using my new shadow enhancement tools (minimizes them) in Photoshop CS4 by pulling out any little shred of info left in the picture. I now withdraw my handbag notion but noticed something just as interesting in the shadows. To me there is a natural arc that extends past the lit areas of where we all saw a “band”. The natural arc in the shadows makes it all look like one much longer piece of something. But what? A military cinch belt? It appears to taper at the left hand end like a leaf, hard to be sure. The right hand arc in the shadows looks like a stalk with maybe a thin shoot heading toward 11:00. The metal loop after enhancement shows a long prong as well. To me, it’s possible that we see another long piece of thick grass like the ones surrounding this area (grass can maintain that arc shape by itself), but with a tiny piece of metal resting on it that looks like the spring found on a closepin, earring, or similar. Not that they is any “proof” as you point out, but I thought you might enjoy this extra piece of very raw data. the second attached image is less extreme in it’s processing. A higher rez image of the scene may be useful. Anything stand out to you?
 
E.S.
 
E.S. recan 1
 
es1.jpg
 
E.S. 2
 
 
es2.jpg
 
 
 NEW OBJECT FOUND! 
 
At the request of E.S. I rescanned at a higher resolution and take a look what “popped up”. New object in grass (see arrow) definitely looks “man-made.”   This object is just 6″ south of the body. Anyone? Anyone?
 
See rescans- a-e below:
 
a
 
skhrescan a.jpg
 
 b
 
skh rescan b.jpg
                                         c

 skhrecan c.jpg

 

                                           d

skhrescan d.jpg

 

                                                              e

skhrescan e.jpg

 

 

 

Posted in Blog

1 Comments

  1. KK on December 11, 2009 at 9:32 am

    Hi Steve, I also use Photoshop CS4, so I basically have the same access. I would love to have a better photo to use, but here is my comment:
    Points a, b, c, and e look irregular to me, indeed the object does not look like grass or shadows. Looking closely at the object, you can see that it appears to be striped with the stripe being very irregular. If you continue to follow the contour of the white space, it could be a folded object.
    Item ES rescan 1 appears to me like it could be part of a straw basket.
    More later 🙂
    kk

    Reply

Leave a Comment