The Last Place They'd Look
I have made this point in various threads but I'll make it here as a distinct post and I will add one extra consideration.
I do not know where the 3MW's bodes are and this is just a speculative exercise. But frankly, so are most of the viewpoints expressed on this specific aspect, in my view. I am aware of course of the two police digs and and various other locations that have been mentioned. I don't dismiss any of them. Except that I consider Cox Hospital to be very unlikely.
I do think it reasonable to say that the killer wanted very much to not be caught and acted accordingly. For that reason I think he may well have sought out a location which provided:
- Very short journey- a matter of minutes
- Long term security of the bodies never being discovered
- Site that has easy access
- Minimum work required
- No likelihood of being interrupted or observed at the critical time
- Minimum surviving signs to attract subsequent attention
He has two such places each about on average 4 mins drive away from 1717. These are:
- Hazelwood cemetery
- Maple Park Cemetery.
Who looks for dead bodies in a cemetery?
Both cemeteries appear to have offered access.
He doesn't need to dig graves. He just needs to access a mausoleum -the older kind, the ones with shelves for simply laying caskets on rather than the more recent ones with effectively a drawer to house the casket. He needs to access a walk-in mausoleum that has a lockable door -either mortice lock or padlock - not the cement sealed slab at the front type - too much time and clearly noticeable once disturbed. Guess where you find the right kind? The older approximately central areas of both cemeteries- the areas that are most private and least overlooked. Both have drivable wide roads/pathways right in deep. A van on low beams isn't going to be noticed by residents 200 meters away at 4am especially with mature trees in those areas further reducing visibility. More especially if driving a green or other natural-toned vehicle.
The victims were petite. Their bodies could well be added into a casket that is still structurally intact but the original bodies have decomposed or effectively mummified and require much less space. If he had to he could remove the skeletal remains and relocate them elsewhere in the cemetery (like go to a recent grave, pull back the fresh turf, dig down a couple of feet in the still fresh earth, deposit the skull and bones and fill in, and replace the turf. Nothing noticeable remains. Or he could just leave those bones inside the mausoleum). The 3MW's remains are then inside caskets that may last several more decades before collapsing and when they do, they reveal mortal remains- there is nothing there to reveal that they belong to the wrong person. Jewelry etc having been removed. The door is locked again and the killer leaves.
How does he gain access to the crypt? Well he could break a padlock and take a chance and replace it with another old looking padlock and hope no one notices. That requires pre-planning. He would 'ideally' have done research or reconnaissance in advance and selected a crypt that hasn't been used for years or there is no continuing family line or they have moved away. Again that requires pre-planning but the only constant feeling I've had about this case across the decades is that it was probably never going to be random.
Back to the lock. Suppose it's a mortice lock or he doesn't want to break the padlock. Where were keys for those mausoleums usually kept back in 1992? I would say most likely at the funeral directors an/or on site. There only seems to have been one small building at Maple Park back then. A small stone building serving as a maintenance shed and an office. If I wanted to break in there and get a key I'd want to make it look like a garden variety burglary. Take the key. Do the horrible deed, then return the key and take something obvious. Kind of like the reported event in the SNL of Wednesday 10th June: 'Maple Park Cemetery, 300 W Grand, between 5pm Friday and 9a.m. Monday. Taken 22-inch blade chainsaw.' I wonder if that was ever solved and had a 'more innocent' explanation?
If I had been with SPD one of the tracks I would have wanted to explore would be to go to both cemeteries, get a list of walk in mausoleums meeting the criteria outlined above and check them out. Unfortunately now, all these years later, every skeleton in the right size ranges would have to be dental or DNA tested to establish identity.