Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Case of Preston Hughes III: Frankenmap

In order to help us better understand the Hartleys' police reports, I have prepared (from the remains of long dead satellite and aerial photos) an overhead map of the crime scene area as it existed on the night of Shandra and Marcell's murders. To bring this map to life, I had to risk the slings and arrows of Google by using one of its satellite views. I had also to use my limited Gimp skills to reorient and remove perspective from aerial photographs. Since no single aerial view covered the entire area of interest, I had to use bits and pieces from several of them. When the bits and pieces didn't quite fit, I stretched, shrunk, sheared and cropped as necessary.

The satellite view was taken well after the murders, well after the elongated overgrown field had been replaced by commercial buildings of some sort. The aerial photographs, on the other hand, were taken well before the murders, even before the Kwik Kar Wash was constructed. That left me with no overhead visual evidence of the area on the night of the murder. I therefore interpolated between the before and after images. In other words, I guessed.

I guessed, for example, that the building that now exists between the Stop N Go building and the Kwik Kar Wash did not yet exist at the time of the murders.

Then, using new clues provided by the aerial views, I sketched in the trials with newly found confidence that I might be somewhat correct. Finally, I added a couple of red dots to indicate where the bodies were found, or approximately so.

Then I hit the switch pulled the lever clicked Save.


Lo and behold!

I offer Frankenmap.
Click to enlarge and make it really scary.

It may not be pretty, but it is the best representation of the crime scene area ever, in the history of the universe. At least as far as I know.



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