In Part 7 we used police documents to find specific times at which certain events happened. Then I estimated for other untimed events, the earliest (or latest) times at which they could have happened.
Here we look at McRae’s car and place some untimed events in their logical place.
There are 10 car events,
There are a lot of gaps and, ideally, we’d put definite times against all but, unfortunately, that’s not possible. All is not lost though.
Let’s see what we can manage.
Why? What’s the point of this?
When I started reading up on this case I was faced with articles which stated that the car was moved on this day or that; that the gun was found on that day or this and I had no reference, no framework, against which I could check. I ‘m trying to produce that reference so that with any piece of evidence we can check to find how the evidence fits.
We’ll look again at 3 police documents, each of which was used in Part 7,
Let’s see the relevant parts of each,
[Annex A]
[McRae B syn]
[McRae O Vehicle Examination page 1]
The top two images confirm time 1 and the third time 5.
Now we’ll look at times 6,7 and 8.
Police at Site, Car secured and Moved to Inverness
The key part of the top two images is highlighted above.
Using my calculations from Part 7, I can estimate the earliest times that the car was secured and moved to Inverness. As with Part 7, I put the calculations at the very end of the post after the copyright terms.
X-rays showed that there was a bullet in his brain. AT THIS POINT senior officers were informed, attended the locus, the vehicle was secured and removed to Police Headquarters at Inverness. [Emphasis is mine]
We know the diagnosis, bullet in his brain, was made on Saturday, 6 April. Both the layout and the language used imply strongly that the next 4 actions followed on directly from the diagnosis [senior officers informed, attended locus, car secured and car removed to Inverness].
‘AT THIS POINT’ suggests that senior police officers were told after, and not before, the X-ray confirmation. That the 4 actions are linked suggests also that these followed on directly.
That the following paragraph in both Annex A and McRae B syn mention McRae’s death very early on the Sunday morning implies that the 4 actions took place on the Saturday.
Therefore, it is a reasonable assumption that these 4 actions all took place on the Saturday but it is just that – an assumption. There is nothing definitive in the police records to confirm this.
Using my calculations from Part 7, I can estimate the earliest times that the car was secured and moved to Inverness. As with Part 7, I put the calculations at the very end of the post after the copyright terms.
Police Records | Calum’s Calcs L = Latest E = Earliest | |||
1 | 6 Apr 11.15 | Car at site | ||
2 | E 6 Apr 11.35 | Police first at site | ||
3 | L 6 Apr 14.48 | Car removed from site to West End Garage, Fort Augustus | ||
4 | L 6 Apr 15.25 | Car at West End Garage | ||
5 | 6 Apr 15.30 | E ended 15.45 | Car examined at garage | |
6 | E 6 Apr 14.48 (AIR) E 6 Apr 15.54 L 6 Apr 20.05 | Senior police officers at locus | ||
7 | E 6 Apr 14.01 (AIR) E 6 Apr 15.07 | Car secured | ||
8 | E 6 Apr 16.32 | Car moved to Inverness | ||
9 | Photographs of car and site | |||
10 | Measurements of road and crash site |
This leaves us with only times 9 (photographs of the car and site) and 10 (the map and road measurements) empty. Let’s do the photographs first
Photographs
What can we do here?
There are only two very obvious possibilities: either they were taken before the car was removed to Fort Augustus or they were not. For the moment let’s assume they were taken before the car was taken to the West End garage in Fort Augustus.
We have two fixed time events which give : (‘1’, 11.15, and ‘5’, 15.30, in the Table above. The pics HAD to be taken within these two times – Fort Augustus police told about accident and the car being in Fort Augustus garage but we can narrow the window slightly using my ‘earliest’ times from Part 7.
McRae witnesses and ambulance have left the site before the photographs were taken and so we can use the earliest time that McRae could have been in the ambulance as one side of the window i.e. 11.45.
We also know the photographs were taken with the car on site and I estimated the latest time the car could have been in position on site was 14.48.
Therefore the window for the photographs was 11.45 to 14.48 on Saturday 6 April. Those 3 hours seem to me to be ample to assess the road, the site and take a photographic record provided the necessary equipment was to hand.
If the photographs were taken outside this window, then the car was returned to the site in a reconstruction. Were this so, the police investigation would be undermined seriously. There is no evidence to support this contention.
A question some might ask is, ‘Were the photographs taken on the same day or were some taken at a different time?’ Perhaps one needs to be thinking in terms of conspiracy to find this question but find it I did.
The breakdown lorry is visible in the same position in each of photos 1 to 5 (McRae 4 to 8).
In photos 1 to 6, part of the same cloud formation is visible in each. Therefore, photos 1 to 6 were taken on the same day at very similar times. For the other pics (7 to 10) the area of sky is different and so they could have been taken on a different day or at a different time but there is no evidence to suggest this.
Locus Map
Along with the photos and the synopsis (McRae, A,B and C) the locus map is the only other undated document. This may or may not be significant.
We cannot know when the map was drawn but I believe that the time window for the photos would have been sufficient for the locus map observations and measurements to have been done.
But I can’t with any confidence give a time other than it must have been after 11.45 on Saturday 6 April, the earliest possible time that McRae was taken to hospital.
This gives us the following times for events which were not timed in police documents.
Police Records | Calum’s Calcs L = Latest E = Earliest | |||
1 | 6 Apr 11.15 | Car at site | ||
2 | E 6 Apr 11.35 | Police first at site | ||
3 | L 6 Apr 14.48 | Car removed from site to West End Garage, Fort Augustus | ||
4 | L 6 Apr 15.25 | Car at West End Garage | ||
5 | 6 Apr 15.30 | E ended 15.45 | Car examined at garage | |
6 | E 6 Apr 14.48 (AIR) E 6 Apr 15.54 L 6 Apr 20.05 | Senior police officers at locus | ||
7 | E 6 Apr 14.01 (AIR) E 6 Apr 15.07 | Car secured | ||
8 | E 6 Apr 16.32 | Car moved to Inverness | ||
9 | If Saturday 6 April then between 11.45 and 14.48 | Photographs of car and site | ||
10 | If Saturday 6 April then after 11.45 | Measurements of road and crash site |
I apologise for the slow progress but, as I have said before, my way of working demands that I walk slowly through the available evidence of the accident.
You may find this frustrating.
You may want to move on to more obviously interesting parts of the case.
I can only ask that you bear with me.
My upcoming posts are,
Part 9 - putting time questions to the police
Part 10 - looking into the detail of the photos and the locus map.
Part 11 - working on the gun.
See you soon.
[originally posted 5 January 2015]
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If you have thoughts, or more, feel free to:
email me at calumsblogATgmailDOTcom or
tweet me at @calumcarr
© CalumCarr 2014
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COPYRIGHT
Copyright over this article is retained by me, CalumCarr.
Please feel free to reproduce extracts and images provided you attribute the words and images to me taking into account the provisos below.
If you wish to use more than one quarter of the article then contact me for permission at calumsblogATgmailDOTcom.
Copyright of the three images is retained by their respective owners and to this end I name: Police Scotland.
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TIMINGS: MY WORKINGS AND ASSUMPTIONS
Securing the Vehicle McRae’s car and belongings had been moved and this action deemed acceptable until after they were told about the bullet in McRae’s brain. Annex A states that initially police treated the crash as an accident. Therefore, there was no reason for the car to be secured until they knew McRae had been shot.
Now, from Part 7, we have my calculations which show the earliest times senior officers were told
EARLIEST police informed (ambulance) at 15.02pm
EARLIEST police informed (AIR ambulance) at 13.56pm
LATEST police informed at 19.13
If we assume excellent communications between the police involved then it is difficult to see that the police could order the car’s securing within 5 minutes of being informed themselves.
This gives,
EARLIEST car secured (ambulance) at 15.07pm
EARLIEST police secured (AIR ambulance) at 14.01pm
But we know the car was being examined at 15.30 and, given the checks carried out, I believe it reasonable to assign a minimum of 15 minutes to the task.
==> EARLIEST vehicle examination completed 15.45.
Moving Car to Inverness
Google maps shows the distance between Fort Augustus and Police HQ in Inverness as 35.3 miles with a journey time of 55 minutes.
In Part 7 I used an average speed of 50mph for the transfer of the car to the garage in Fort Augustus. I use the same average here.
==> 42min
but we allow 5 min to put the car back on the transporter before transport to Inverness
==> EARLIEST time the car could be Inverness is 15.45 + 47mins ==> 16.32
It isn’t possible to give latest time for the car to arrive in Inverness because it is possible that the car wasn’t secured and moved until after senior officers had visited the site of the crash. I have estimated the latest time they would have reached the site but beyond that I can make no estimate.