Post by lightningjew on Jul 3, 2012 13:05:35 GMT -5
I know I've asked this question before, but I just can't seem to find an answer to it: the two sets of footprints that led away from the house--did they lead to the access road (roughly parallel to the driveway) or to Featherbed Lane (which ran behind the house)? I've contacted Mark Falzini at the Archives, who says it was only that dogs were heard barking around the chicken coops/abandoned house at the end of the drive (to which the access road led), and that there were no prints in the direction of the access road. But then, in Gardner, I read that "Lindbergh rejoined the search with DeGaetano and Bornmann near where the ladder had been left behind. Together, they traced prints 'made by rubber boots or overshoes on an abandoned road which lead to a chicken coop and an old abandoned house at the entrance to the Lindbergh estate.' From there the footprints 'went across the road and appeared to stop alongside some impressions that appeared to be from an automobile and then further trace ceased.'" (p. 26). Here, he seems to be stating that the footprints went to and down the access roads, but, at the same time, when talking about the tracker Oscar Bush: "He started under the nursery and followed the muffled prints to where the ladder had been found. From that point he pursued what appeared to be two sets of tracks through a field to Featherbed Lane, where they ended, as others had observed... Featherbed Lane ran roughly parallel to the gravel road down to the house." (p. 30-31). Thing is, though, it was the access road that was parallel to the gravel road or driveway, meaning that if this where the prints were leading, they would've been in an easterly direction from the house. But Featherbed Ln. used to run behind the house--from it's current dead end, connecting up with what is today Lindbergh Rd. It's in the other direction, south of the house. So, to sum up, I guess my question is, were the two sets of footprints heading east down the access road (to the abandoned house and chicken coops) or south to Featherbed Lane? Or was it both? Two sets of prints, one heading to the access road, the other to Featherbed?