Unlocked Swinging Bridge

[dmac]

After walking across the back bridge myself a few days ago, it is clear to me that Marty and Bo may have taken Tina out of Keddie that way. In Marde's DOJ Bullshitathon interview, he wanks off that the back bridge was locked. On close inspection, it's clear the gate on the other side, if locked, could easily be avoided by simply climbing over the rail. Yet another attempt by Marde to divert attention is proved to be hokum.

[meankitty]

Which direction is the picture facing? Is it toward Highway 70?

[dmac]

Yes, the gate is on the side of the river opposite Keddie. This photo is taken from the Keddie side, down in Keddie Flats. There's only the one gate, and the bridge ramp on the Keddie side (where the photo was taken) has a door with a deadbolt lock but, again, it's easy to get around it. Seeing that the opposite side was private homes, separate from the Keddie property, the gate was likely just a deterrent meant to keep the Keddie kids from running over and playing on private property.

Doorway and ramp on Keddie side:



Ramp up to doorway and bridge on Keddie side:

[BUTTERFLYVALLEY1]

This is the bridge where you cross to the Highway 70 side. After you get on that side, it is not much of a walk to the dirt road which goes right up the hill to the highway. A right turn from the road and you are headed for Oroville. This bridge was a swinging bridge when I lived in the area. To the left of this bridge was the Keddie swimming hole. Spent a lot of time in the river there - good memories.

This is wonderful DMAC. Now you know the scale when I say the homes were small and we were a very tight-knit community. The kids from that area were called the "Keddie kids" and the kids from further down the canyon were known as the "canyon kids"...we were sort of outed from Quincy in the 50s and 60s before we could drive. It was a unique place to grow up. It is so sad to hear of the reality of what it has turned into to such a sad extent. You did well.

[dmac]

I hear ya, Butterfly. After knowing nothing of the scale and scope of Keddie, or that of the case itself, making the map of Keddie started out for me to find where 28 was in proximity to the Lodge and main road. I'd been thru Keddie as a wee pup, and everything looks big to toddlers, so my memories are of no merit when recalling proximity and size. After the map grew from a small project to a huge one, everything was tightening and space was virtually nonexistent between cabins. For hell's sake, this was lodging meant for RR workers, later turned over to tightly (yet romantically) housed paying 'motel' guests, once the railroad started bringing weekend getaway clients. The original intent was to build cabins that would later serve as rooms for paying guests. That is the main reason for Keddie's growth- and death.

A history lesson about Keddie shows the original Lodge burned to the ground in the 30s, killing a waiter. It was rebuilt (photos follow) and many more cabins built to house primarily RR and military workers, etc, during the beginning of WWII. The Keddie Motel, across 70 from the entrance to the resort, was in fact originally a housing project for military personnel working a secret project or three. When the war ended, the owners had to sue the government to reclaim use of the land, which the military promised to give back immediately after the war, yet reneged on. Our government hasn't changed much when it comes to screwing the honest citizen, has it`? Look at the Keddie case as a prime example.

When it comes to the scope of how remote Keddie feels, nothing hits you like walking into Keddie, as I did. I knew that property so damned well from doing the maps, but the road dropped off of 70 into obscurity. Major mindbend, as I expected a gentle slope towards the bridge. No, you're immediately out of sight from the main road. In reality, you are off the map in Keddie. The bridge is the right size from what I figured, but the cabins are so tiny. The 'log cabins' are pure facade- if they'd been made out of real logs, you couldn't fit inside a single cabin, they are so small.

Walking past the huge fir which held that wooden sign, likely carved by Johnny in shop class, simply stating "Sharps", it's easy to find the rock-lined path that curved down the slope to where the front door of Cabin 28 once stood. The large concrete front porch is gone. Hell, everything is gone, almost. There is a distinct soft trench, easily located by applying weight to the leaves and pine needles carpeting the town. Walking that trench, I immediately understand that Cabin 28 is even smaller than I figured. Hell, the tree that separated 27 and 28: If that tree hasn't grown in 30 years, it means the cabins were closer to seven feet apart than ten.

Everything in Keddie is smaller than you'd expect. Even adults returning must be overwhelmed by how small everything is. It's a Lilliputian town,
Hell, I think the higher-ups who derailed the investigation of this case banked on their sloppy response, a Lilliputian reaction from the media and voters, and the Lilliputian memory of society at large.

I expected Keddie to be a beautiful little place, ready for renewal. It's too late. It's just a sad little place, it's current state a reminder of the very lies and inevitable decline and death that helped facilitate these murders, and the corrupt LE response.

As for the back bridge, I've revisited old photos from the 40s, and it's there. It's always been a suspension bridge and, had I not seen a few recent additions such as aluminum wire fencing on the sides of the bridge, I'd swear every timber and nail dated from 1939 and beyond. It was the scariest walk I've had in many a year. The photos don't show the broken 1x10s which make up the walkway of the suspension bridge. I was too busy holding onto the sides to take photos of the raging river-- it's no damned creek in April, it's a river-- below me. I wanted to take many shots of the bridge, but my attention was 100% focused on trying to make it across.

I'll update this post later with photos of the bridge from my jaunt across, plus the old 40s photos, and other bits of 'bridge' interest.

Marty said he woulda-coulda taken Tina over the bridge if it hadn't been locked if he'd been the real killer. If you gotta get her outta Keddie before morning, just to hide her until you can safely move her further, there's only two ways out of Keddie: The road bridge, and the back foot bridge. They are identical in distance from 28, but the back bridge offered far more protection from traffic, homes, and possible witnesses. Guess where Marty took her?

...

As promised, old photos. This is the original Keddie Lodge, which burned down in the 30s. I made a post of all the old news articles I found, which includes one on the fire. Sorry I can't recall the exact date it burned. The layout of Keddie was very rudimentary, but it was a stop for the stage coach long before vehicles- or even the great amount of trains the Wye Bridge later afforded. Now, here's the odd thing- My understanding is the first lodge really was a stop point for the stage coaches, and consisted of two stores later built together as one building. Which means there may be three lodges in Kerddie's history? Amongst these photos you see two separate stores later made to look like one. Do the math. When looking at the photos side-by-side, it's irrefutable.
.




And here's a winter shot of the new lodge, taken from north of the vantage point where the Dorm was later built. I don't know what building that is at the left, but it isn't the same building that was later nearby: the Keddie General Store. The dorm still stands, and the General Store, where Sue bought her menthols and Bo and Marty bought their Marlboros from the Albins, was torn down years ago. It's an amazing shot, today's Lodge in an early incarnation, in winter slumber, showing little more than Cabins 1 and 2 (yes, 1 and 2 were show-off cabins meant to entice).

Don't be alarmed but, were you to walk from the spot this photo was taken, you would reach the lodge in about 15 paces. Don't let the fisheye lens fool you: the lodge was just a few feet away.



Here's the old Gas Station, back in the day when it was actually two separate businesses. Yes, it was so busy that there were two separate stores open. The old southern building remains, and a slab of concrete is the sole reminder of the northern structure.



Here's the old shots of Keddie Flats, dated 1946 and 1949. This is still the same layout you see today, for the most part. Most of the cabins in these shots have been torn down and replaced, but the loop road is still essentially the same. At the center bottom, you see the foot bridge disappearing into the void. That spooky suspension bridge has been there, and barely maintained, since the late Thirties? I wish had I noticed the bridge in these photos long before, or I'd never have stepped foot on it.



"Pleasant View Housing Project", known as "the Project", was a military installation built and maintained by the US military at the start of WWII. The land was leased at $1 per year by the owners, who were promised the government would give it back, including all structures the military built, at the end of the war. The owners spent thousands of dollars suing the government to fulfill the deal, because the government lied. However, the buildings were left standing, and were converted into what we know of as The Keddie Motel, behind the Gas Station.



Here endeth my version of Keddie's history, for the moment. I do have old shots of the 'new' lodge being built, which are photos that long stupefied me because I couldn't understand the bearings until I realized my missing point of reference was the very lodge itself. Oh, well, I hope these old photos make a bit more sense to you all now. I just made it all up, but it does sound good.

.

[gotbier]

I know I can (and I did) use the 'Like' button, but I wanted to say:

AWESOME job D. thanx for sharing all this and I can't wait to see more.

Leslie

[dmac]

After you get on that side, it is not much of a walk to the dirt road which goes right up the hill to the highway. A right turn from the road and you are headed for Oroville.

I got so busy stupidly rambling about Keddie's history, I forgot the point of my reply:

Yes, it is a very short walk past a couple cabins up to 70. If you walk out the back door of 28 and over the footbridge, up the dirt road to 70, you will pass 3 cabins in 1981 (edit: No, make that maybe 5- there was one or two on the left as you walk down the hook road into Keddie Flats), none of which would pose a logical threat as witness material. Once at the 70, there are so many places to hide Tina- a gulley right across the road would suffice for days. This was 81, and massive searches were not the norm. Not for poor people. Today, they would/should have had divers and rescue teams downstream looking for Tina based on Justin's "Look for her down by the river" statements. Oh, what statements? Never Happened due to the 'Marilyn Said' ruling by the Supremist Court in 1984. Back then? who in LE gave a damn she'd been molested? They knew her name and face so well they never noticed she was missing, other than to lie in official documents stating they understood she was gone when they clearly did not? Assholes.

Oh, don't get me started. Oops, too late.

To the main bridge, the car bridge at the mouth of the town? You pass the lodge, the Dorm, the entire row of SE cabins (30-45), and 1-3.

Wait til morning, Dee drives them out, they pick up Tina, and off to Camp Eighteen.

Question #1: How did Dee get to Keddie? If he gave Marty his car, and had to hitch everywhere, how did LE claim Dee was in Keddie that morning? Was it an eyewitness report, or just "Wow, that plate number matches Dee Lake! He's HERE!" Exonerated. Except for his interview in Part Two, where he implicates himself so many times and ways. Flag-waving piece of shit. That's messed up, that I'm using his "loaned the car so they could use the battery" for his own defense. Still, MK, why did you never ask that obvious Q to help Marty the Murderer?

.

[awareness]

I knew that property so damned well from doing the maps, but the road dropped off of 70 into obscurity. Major mindbend, as I expected a gentle slope towards the bridge. No, you're immediately out of site from the main road.

I was too busy holding onto the sides to take photos of the raging river-- it's no damned creek in April, it's a river-- below me.

^ edited to quote what I wanted to reference

Yes Keddie really does drop off into nowhere. I drive to Quincy every year and always wondered what was down below from the now-dilapidated Keddie Resort sign. Because as you point out, it really does go down and you dont see Keddie itself when you're driving. Such a shame that a beautiful resort was ruined by this awful crime. This upcoming summer will be the first year I'll actually venture down into Keddie because Im curious to see what it looks like first hand.

The Feather River is SUPER full wow! Must have been from all the precipitation California has received this year. In the not too distant past, its been several feet below the more normal shore line. Glad to see its rebounded a bit. Hopefully Lake Oroville levels are back up as well.

Thanks for the photos dmac, Ive often suspected B/M could have gone out the back way and seeing your photos confirm what is a viable possibility. Wonder if there was anyone living over on the other side in 81 and if they were interviewed at all.

[BUTTERFLYVALLEY1]

I can't help it so I am just going to say it...so Marty knew the flats enough to know the bridge was locked? In my estimation, either he opened his mouth and inserted his foot about that knowledge or someone had insinuated that would be a way out of Keddie unseen. Either way, it was known. Since I do not know what LE checked or did not check when looking for Tina and or clues, I must emphatically state that area should have been searched thoroughly including the cabins on the other side of that bridge. There I feel so much better.

[BUTTERFLYVALLEY1]

Oh, DMAC, those older pictures of Keddie and the Projects is the way it was when I first learned about Keddie as a child. My sister and I would come up on the midnite train and spend a couple of months in the summer up in that area. My aunt and uncle(who was dad's brother) worked for the WPRR there in Keddie. This was several years before we actually moved up there as a family. You see, during that time, mom and dad would take us to the station in Stockton and they would choose a woman who was headed to at least Keddie and sometimes beyond that destination and ask if she would watch us on the way up the Feather River Canyon. Back then, people were a lot more trustworthy, and women usually traveled by rail to go up that way and often had a child or two with her. When we went back at the end of the summer, my aunt usually drove us back. It was a win win situation all around. We would help her milk the goats (Suzie and Sheba) and feed the chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. They also had a lovely dog whom we would tramp around the mountains with. Also, our aunt was such a great cook, like our mom. She would make popovers for breakfast and if we happened to run across a patch of berries or chokecherries, she would make pies or we would help her make chokecherry jam. It was such an experience and a wonderful memory to add to my store of things to always remember vividly and correctly. I do believe I made mental lists of memories since I was a child. My point, however, was to let you know that those pictures are just wonderful and I was about three when a lot of them were taken. Thank you so very much for including them. You have made me extremely greatful for a peek at a time of utter joy in my life.

Just thanks from me...

[dmac]

This may seem old, but it's not. A contradictory document has recently surfaced, so read on.

Marty said in his interview that the only quiet way to get Tina out of Keddie was the back bridge, the swinging bridge. But, he said, it's always locked.

For years, I've pointed that out as a glaring lie, that the gate was open as usual, and he was lying because that's exactly how they got her body out. Then, that fact was 100% verified: the bridge wasn't locked!

I think while finding all this stuff about Kathy, the ride home, etc., Mike found a document that directly and loudly contradicts Doug's other account, where he said it was open the multiple times he crossed:

1- when he went to the bar
2- when he came home around 2am
3- when his gf went across the following morning to get her car

This 'new' old file states that he said the gate "was locked, which was unusual, as it's rarely locked". He said he had to struggle over the locked gate when going to the bar, then help his conquest over the gate at 2am, and that she had to climb over it again when she left in the morning (her car was at the bar).

I smell another fraudulent document. I've been over that bridge, and I would never attempt to climb that gate. It's at the top of a ramp, which puts a person something like 25-30 feet off the ground (the ground drops away down to the river). Look at the photos:

JPEG-Image-(214831).jpg

JPEG-Image-(216511).jpg

JPEG-Image-(216926).jpg

One of these documents is lie-filled. I believe it's the one stating the gate was unusually locked.

First, I wouldn't try climbing that gate, particularly with the girl in tow. Both sides have gates on them. On the Keddie side, it's the same gate but covered in mesh that would make it near-impossible to get over. I'd bet the other side had matching mesh that has since been lost to time. Look:

JPEG-Image-(215225).jpg

JPEG-Image-(215225)cu.jpg

Second, where's the document from his gf confirming his acct?

Third, what possible reason would Doug have to lie, either way? He's already said he want to the bar, got a girl for the night, and they went over the bridge. This info has appeared on Timelines, but it's suspiciously missing such info as whether the gates were locked.

This isn't a matter of choosing which to believe. Two CONTRADICTORY statements on such benign things as whether the gate was locked? Unless Doug G was involved in the murders, or had inside info, or heard rumors of 'Tina Down By the River', he has zero reason to lie, much less know why LE were asking. It sounds to me as if they were SPECIFICALLY asking if the gate was locked, as it's hardly something Doug G would bring up without prompting. It sounds to me like whoever wrote the falsified report has never been on that bridge and had absolutely no idea what they'd be up against when trying to climb that bridge. In the daylight? Not likely! In the pitch black of a moonless night?!

Everything points to Marty and Tina (and Bo) down by the bridge, with LE prodding around to see if anyone can confirm the gate was locked. When Doug said they weren't LE came up with an alternate report. We've already got Crimely by the short fuzzies, filing a completely false report about Marty's confession, LE intentionally turning off the tape recorder when interviewing Greg, Stoy doctoring a report to state LE knew Tina was missing almost immediately, and Stoy falsifying a report by Gamberg.

I'll get more info on when the conflicting reports claim to have been filed, r/o, etc. Because I think is yet another smoking gun LE were covering for the killers.

[nekogirrl]

nobody in their right mind would try to climb a gate like that at night...and hey, you been to the bar, drinking? whoever tried would end up in the water ...

[dmac]

I think anyone looking at the photos I posted would deduce the falsified document is the one claiming he said he & his gf climbed over that bridge, what, four times? And if one side is locked, wouldn't both be? Making it eight?

Also, seems to me the main reason to lock the bridge is due to weather (winter) or just to keep the kids from dicking around, bothering residents or getting hurt. The latter seems to be the least of anyone's concern in 81! Wouldn't the residents on at least the quiet side (nw side, Doug Gleason's side) have keys?!

That faked document is, again, incredibly STUPID and INCRIMINATING. Keddie Kuverup.

[dmac]

I just found something of interest Loon wrote. In choosing where to post it, I decided to combine one of my earliest threads about the bridge with the most recent.

Here's what Loon wrote on an old forum:

Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:15 pm Post subject: theories

When I was out in Keddie last Tuesday night, I kept staring at that damn footbridge. My daughter, as I said before used to cross it all the time. She told me this morning that (as she put it)some hippies lived in a little cabin there. They grew pot and sometimes she used to smoke it with them and friends. Most of the time she just sat down on the beach thinking. She had just lost her boyfriend in Burney(he drowned in a tubing accident). She was quite up-set over his death. Depressed actually.

My daughter was very small, she was 4'10 and weighed about 80 lbs. She has the same color of hair as Tina and was the size of a 12 year old. I found a picture of her and was shocked to see she and Tina wore their hair the same way. They even look a lot alike back then. Tina could easily be mistaken for my daughter. I don't think she had enemies or was being stocked but she was a cute little 14 year old and well indowed. She said people over there knew she lived at the top of the hill in the second cabin. My cabin was the second cabin but it was to the left side at the top of the hill. Sue's cabin was the second cabin to the right.

This sticks out like a sore thumb to me. She's making the post about four things:

>The drug theft theory
>The mistaken ID theory
>Mistaken House theory
I'll get to the fourth.

Marty's bro had already introduced the BS that Marty had told him that his family (Marty, Loon, Kids) was supposed to be murdered, not the Sharps. The BS line is Marde & Bo saw a car loaded with weed, hijacked it, stole the weed. The owners somehow tracked it down to Marty & Bo and put a hit on them. Marty has repeated this lie himself, apparently.

His 'widow' made one post on this forum, a real turd of a lie-fest, part of which toes the line Spencey repeated often:

"He said while talking in his sleep on many occasions - It was my fault - it was supposed to be me. If I hadn't parked my car in front of their cabin I would be dead, my kids would be dead.

On another occasion: They were after me. It shouldn't have been them. They killed the wrong people. "

So, the killers somehow found Marty and Bo did it, but were vewy vewy confwoozed about where he lived. And Marty had parked his car in front of Sue's house?

>Marty owned no car
>the only vehicle seen parked in front of 28 was the black van
>Loon's red Pinto wagon was parked in front of 27, on blocks or jacked up, with the hood up
>Dee's car was parked further down the road, on the far side of 27 from 28
► Best of all is their own words, backed by aerial photos: All insist Justin woke them well AFTER the murders were discovered, and aerial photos make clear where cars were- AND WEREN'T- parked that morning. Read Loon's statement to us last year, how the Sheriff was already at 28 when she and/or Marty first approached 28 after they'd slaughtered the Vx. In one of her few truths, she even described how Doug Thomas had parked in front of 28, AGAINST TRAFFIC. How the F could Doug park where his dear friend's car was supposedly parked?

Marty's sleep-talking wisdom? That's not how people talk in their sleep. As if explaining it to a third person? Fucking get real, bitch! Anyway, this ridiculous story is just as full of holes as the Loonibi. Given they had nearly 20 years to dream up this whopper, it's clear all the time in the world didn't make them any smartter.

This all happened prior to Loon changing her tune, when overnight she declared Marty and Bo clearly weren't involved. But she's towing part of the party line Spencey was spewing, about Marty's drug theft and mistaken ID. The reason I never discuss this shit when talking the REAL lies of the case is because it is so blatantly a pile of bile made up years later, clearly not related to the lies from 81, and worth nothing more than a perfunctory snicker and dismissal.

So what's the fourth thing?


What the HELL does the bridge have to do with the story?

"I kept staring at that damn footbridge."

It's apparent Loon knows the Marty/Spencey narrative meant to explain away suspicions of his involvement. No, it's meant to explain the murders as Marty as the intended victim. Damn, if only it could have been him! His story- and 'dream-talking'- are to make him a living victim of the Keddie murders rather than the murderer.

So why is Loon repeating most of that shit while saying Marty & Bo prolly did it? Well, shit, screw that. In her narrative,

WHAT
THE
HELL
DOES
THE
'DAMN
FOOTBRIDGE'
HAVE
TO
DO
WITH
IT?

Nothing. She's just throwing it into the mix because she knows TINA went over That Damn Footbridge.