The criminal investigation was one of establishing negligence, designed to apportion blame for a tragedy, and Union and UPI staff were held responsible for not knowing the exact hiker route, not raising the alarm soon enough and not equipping the hikers adequately. But had a different criminality been investigated, in what appeared to be a suspicious tragedy of leaving a tent and some being found with serious injuries, and a detective was put in charge instead of a man who believed in UFOs and some postgraduate students tasked with deciphering what happened then I wonder if the case may have been solved 64 years ago - at least from the viewpoint of ruling out any third party involvement.
Typically every item would have been location mapped, significant finds bagged and preserved, and everything dusted for prints, and possibly stored to this day in archival file boxes, also potentially lending the material to the significant recent advances in DNA sensitivity, instead of items being handled by many as Foundation museum exhibits.
As only some examples of what fingerprinting might have uncovered, if Teddy and the late Igor Pavlov's restaging theory was correct then the mysterious 4 men who run through the theory would have their prints over countless repositioned items. If someone flushed the hikers from their tent using the ice axe then the handle may have an unknown person's fresh prints, unless of course they wore gloves. Had a hiker knife been found in the snow, as was the case, and it had another hiker's prints it might suggest conflict (or borrowing), and if the diaries found in one bag had a third party's prints on them, and/or their ID papers and wallets, that might suggest anyone from Mansi to KGB were there.
It's hugely frustrating that it wasn't treated like a potential crime scene, even if third party presence was ultimately ruled out.
Topic: If only they'd fingerprinted everything (Read 9238 times)