If it were possible to use modern forensics on the original scene

[Marchesk]

Let's say a modern forensics team could use a time machine to examine the tent, footprints, fire-pit, den and bodies before they were found. Do you think a definitive conclusion would be reached, or are we still left with a mystery and competing theories?

And yes, if you could use a time machine, then saving the hikers lives would come before solving the mystery. But just as a hypothetical, is this case something that could have been solved if it occurred in 2018, by just examining the scene of their deaths?

Certain theories could be confirmed or ruled out, but stuff like infrasound and ball lightning couldn't be without recording equipment during the incident. I don't know about a staged scene.

[Armide]

I think that modern forensics would have helped a lot. I mean we've evolved so much I'm pretty sure almost all of the queries of the incident would be solved. The thing is though, I don't even think we need modern forensics, if the political climate hadn't changed, the forensic analyses might have never been released or might have been falsified, no matter how detailed they would have been. I mean we know for a fact that the USSR was closely tied to the investigation after all.

It's so frustrating though, and it does make me wish we did have access to a time machine at least to know what the hell happened to those histological reports that were never released, and perhaps we could've even found out if the tent really was slashed from the inside.

[Loose}{Cannon]

For sure!

Example.  There would have been a metric crap-ton of color pictures where things lay....  like the condition of the tent when found and what direction the flashlight was pointing.  Was the flashlight pointed towards where they were going so that they could use it as a navigational aid upon returning?   Guess we will never know!

[Marchesk]

Was the flashlight pointed towards where they were going so that they could use it as a navigational aid upon returning?

That would have made perfect sense, but the person who found the flashlight said it was turned off. They turned it on to see whether it was still working, and it was.

[Loose}{Cannon]

But still.....  no indication as to what direction it was pointing when found.   Yet another undocumented piece of evidence.   

[CalzagheChick]

It's such a shame that we can't use modern forensics for better autopsy reports.

[Per Inge Oestmoen]

It's such a shame that we can't use modern forensics for better autopsy reports.

Exactly.

[CalzagheChick]

I would bet my life savings that modern forensics would have given us a much better idea of the footprints in the snow. I mean definitive type information. Important definitive information.

[Per Inge Oestmoen]

I would bet my life savings that modern forensics would have given us a much better idea of the footprints in the snow. I mean definitive type information. Important definitive information.

That is possible.

The big challenge with footprints or other traces in the snow is the long period between February 1 when the students died and February 26 when the tent was discovered by the first rescue team. Most footprints and almost certainly all ski trails would be erased by then.

In addition, the local rescue team found an empty tent and at first did not realize that the nine hikers had perished. Therefore they did not think of the area as a crime scene. If there was any evidence left in the snow around the tent after almost a month, it was not secured.

Nine people were found dead. If there had been a proper forensic examination of the nine bodies without intervention and without directions to what conclusion the investigators were allowed to produce, much had been different. If it had been possible to go back in time and perform a thorough forensic investigation of all the dead bodies with modern methods, we would likely have cleared up all the present ambiguities.

[CalzagheChick]

My thing with the footprints is that... they left these sort of "ice sculptures" from the body heat of their feet which melted the snow beneath them as it packed it. Those ice sculptures probably could have yielded foot/toe prints which are every bit as unique to the individual as a finger prints or an ear print. I believe this would shine a light on some of the educated guesses we've amassed over time.

[Per Inge Oestmoen]

My thing with the footprints is that... they left these sort of "ice sculptures" from the body heat of their feet which melted the snow beneath them as it packed it. Those ice sculptures probably could have yielded foot/toe prints which are every bit as unique to the individual as a finger prints or an ear print. I believe this would shine a light on some of the educated guesses we've amassed over time.

You are certainly correct in assuming that the footprints could give us more information with proper forensic methods.

If the area around the tent had been examined immediately after the discovery of the tent, we may have had confirmation of the manner in which the hikers left the tent, and most importantly we might have been able to find footprints and/or ski trails from other people.

Time is the crucial factor here. Most of the students' footprints were gone between February 1 and February 26, and if there were any traces of the presence of others left in the tent area on the 26th of February, that evidence was likely inadvertently destroyed by the first search and rescue team.

If the searchers had arrived at the area three weeks earlier much would have been different. But they did not. And that is the main reason why we discuss over the dead bodies of nine innocent students, after almost 60 years still uncertain about whether the Dyatlov group fell victims of a remarkable combinations of improbable coincidental circumstances and unlikely accidents or were mercilessly killed in a carefully orchestrated operation brilliantly designed to make it all look like a series of accidents. 

[CalzagheChick]

People say all the time that the bodies were out there for a month or so before being found if not longer (rav4) and I'm thinking, "What would be so different? Even if a search crew was sent two weeks earlier on the day the crew was expected to send a telegram, the Dyatlov party would be dead. The fact is, they died early on. Not even half way through their trip.

[Per Inge Oestmoen]

People say all the time that the bodies were out there for a month or so before being found if not longer (rav4) and I'm thinking, "What would be so different? Even if a search crew was sent two weeks earlier on the day the crew was expected to send a telegram, the Dyatlov party would be dead. The fact is, they died early on. Not even half way through their trip.

It would have made all the difference.

If the search team had arrived at the scene two weeks earlier, there would have been a much greater chance of finding footprints and ski trails made by another group of people - but that crucially important evidence was almost certainly erased after one month.

[sarapuk]

What about using modern forensics on the MISSING EVIDENCE  !  ?

[CalzagheChick]

What about using modern forensics on the MISSING EVIDENCE  !  ?

Okay I volunteer as Tribute just this once guys:

What missing evidence? You have personal knowledge of missing evidence as evidenced (see what I did there?) by the countless threads you post in about missing evidence. We keep asking you specifically what evidence is missing. No answer. But still claims for missing evidence.

Throw us a bone, dude.

[sarapuk]

I think I may have said before, THE TENT is missing. CLOTHES are missing. And maybe film from cameras is missing.  All EVIDENCE.