Another in the endless mass shootings in USA - this time Denver

[Ed Jewett]

Aurora Massacre: What does the Spine Board Tell Us?

Posted on July 29, 2012 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton

UPDATE: Clearer picture of the spine board. It's not a creeper and it's the black things are definitely straps. It's a spine board.

yes, it's a spine board

I keep seeing this spine board in the photos of the crime scene. It's tucked neatly under the car but you can see part of it sticking out behind the trunk. Why would that be there? If it was for victims, do you think the emergency crews would have put it in the middle of the evidence being investigated by the police, FBI, and ATF? Do you think they would have just left it there for no apparent reason? Why is it there? What does that tell us?

spine board under suspect's car hours after the arrest.

Notice the holes in the board so responders can pick the person up. Here is an example of a spine board that looks similar to the end of this one. I'm not saying it's the same product, but it does come in white. I would think that what we see sticking out of the car is actually the part of the board where the person's feet would go. Usually the "bottom" of the board is narrower than the "top".
Here's another shot of the spine board, this one from the side which gives us a good idea of how long it is. Notice the two nylon straps used to secure someone to the board.

The spine board was never marked as evidence and when the evidence collectors were finished with their job (looks like the AR-15 was the last thing they packed up) the spine board was still sitting there. That's because it wasn't evidence belonging to the assailant, it was equipment used by the police left there under the car to be picked up later when they towed the vehicle away.

Spine board still there. No evidence marker on it

As you can see in the photo above, the evidence collection process is nearly complete with the AR-15 being packed up. And yet, there sits the spine board just as clear as day.
Even if the suspect parked on top of the board, if it was already lying there before he showed up, the police would have entered it into evidence unless they knew exactly where it came from. It came from them.
So, why the spine board? Why would police want a spine board to detain a suspect and then leave it at the scene afterward?
The answer to that is simple: James Holmes was so incapacitated when they found him, they thought they would need the spine board to transport him. Once he regained some kind of awareness of where he was, not only did he tell them about the traps in the apartment, but he may have in fact been able to get up and into the transport vehicle himself. So the cops just tucked the board under the suspect's car that he had been lying beside after they broke the window and pulled him out and took the second gas mask off of him.
There may be any number of reasons to use a spine board at the scene of an emergency, but the fact is, it is under the suspect's car and everyone knew, very early on, that the suspect was inside the car and then arrested beside the car. I seriously doubt some first responder is going to walk up and tuck his spine board under the suspect's vehicle for safe keeping.
The spine board had to be brought there for the suspect. And that means to some degree and at least for some time, he had to be seriously incapacitated. Seriously enough to call for the board to move him.
Does that sound like the guy who went into the theater and shot 71 people and moved out just as the police arrived 60 seconds later?
Does that sound like the guy who ran the length of the entire building to plant a second gas mask just to confuse us, then ran back, stripped off the equipment, and jumped in the car to be discovered only seconds later?
No.
According to the police, James Holmes admitted to taking some prescription medication like Vicodin prior to the attack. That may or may not be true, but what is true is the police admit that Holmes had been drugged BY SOMEONE prior to them finding him in that car. We also know that they didn't take a mugshot photo of him that nightpossibly because he was drugged out of his mind. So we know he was drugged and that could explain the spine board: Holmes was so far out of it when they found him, they thought they would need it to transport him.
I think this is just further proof, circumstantial of course, of my original theory about this case: that someone set Holmes up to be the patsy on this attack and left him drugged and in the car when they went in and shot the 71 people in that theater.I suppose they did that figuring that when the cops found him, drugged out to the gills, wearing a gas mask, sitting next to a shotgun and 2 Glock 40s, they would just put a hole in his head and be done with it. But, that didn't happen.
The location of the equipment right next to where a car could have been waiting for the real assailant when he came out, the location of the other gas mask at the end of the parking lot where the real assailant may have run to or tossed it out of the car window, the early police reports of the guy in a blue and white plaid shirt wearing a gas mask, all of this points to another person actually being the one who attacked those people last Thursday night. Who by the way, is still at large.