". . . she was walking in the northeast portion of Fort Marcy Park, gaining entry to the park at a spot where the tennis courts of the Dogwood subdivision border on Fort Marcy Park. She related that it was an extremely hot and humid day and noticed at a distance of approximately 10 to 15 feet [close!] a white male walking by himself in a direction leading from the George Washington Memorial Parkway into the northeast section of the park. She stated what caught her attention was that this white male, in spite of the heat [high 90s], was dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and a red tie. . . She further stated that when she noticed this white male, he immediately looked away from her. . ."
This interview report is discussed in some detail in the CIR. Having been in the park mysedlf a number of times on hot workday afternoons, it struck me (as it did the witness who lived in the neighborhood) that the person she saw is anything but the typical person found walking in the park. Who might this person have been? Why was he in the park?
I speculated (identified as such!) in the CIR that this person could have been checking out the park on the 19th to get the lay of the land one day before Foster's death (whether there were many people in the park around the middle of the afternoon, etc.). The time he was seen is at the rough midpoint of the time between when Foster left the WH (~1 PM) and when he body was first found (~5.50 PM). Pretty thin. . . but I felt it was worht mentioning.
I have (after finally managing to read the 389 pages of handwritten FBI interview notes that Chris Ruddy obtained through FOIA in early March 1996) two more bits of official information that I did not have when I wrote the CIR.
First: I now know officially from the handwritten interview notes that the father of the witness contacted the US Park Police shortly after Foster's death and informaed the Park Police of what his daughter had seen. According to the handwritten FBI interview notes of this teenage female witness, she "informed father who notified the USPP."
I have the Park Police Case File on the USPP Foster Death Investigation (the parts that have been made public). Nowhere in the Park Police Case File is there any mention of the call from the father or an interview of the witness. Nada. Zip. Wonder why the USPP left out this witness account?
Second: I remarked in my commentary in the CIR regarding what this witness had seen that it was very strange that the FD-302 (the typed FBI interview report) is not clear where the man was when the witness observed him. All we are told re the location of the witness and the location of the man is that they were in the "northeast portion" or walking "into the northeast section" of the park, the man walking "in a direction leading from the George Washington Memorial Parkway." If you are familiar with Fort Marcy Park and environs [see Map V (R) in the CIR] you will realize how little meaning "northeast portion" has, especially when the reference apaprently refers, not to Fort Marcy itself, but to all of Fort Marcy Park.
My aerial photos of the park show the tennis courts clearly. They also show the old cabin at the end of an old grassy road (or wide path) that runs southerly along the western border of the park. In the summer months when the trees and bushes are leafed out, this "old road" is a (dare I use the word?) covert way to get a vehicle from Chain Bridge Road down along the western border of the park.
Near the old cabin is a gap in the western boundary where a tree had (long ago) smashed down the fence. The gap in the fence is noted on Map V (R) as well. One could transport a body very discreetly east from this spot on the western border of Fort Marcy Park due to the heavy tree and shrub cover. I have walked a variety of routes from the western border fence into the Fort itself -- there are some disused pathways and it is literally "a walk in the park" though there are some very modest ups and downs. Readers of the CIR know that I have long specualted that Foster's body could have been brought into the park in this fashion (my next favorite route is through the gap in the fence on the north side of the Park along Cahin Bridge Road [see Map V (R)].
OK, now that I have "set the scene" I'll get to my second point. The handwritten FBI interview notes describe the location where the witness saw this unusual man quite precisely. There is no talk of the "northeast section of the park" in the handwritten notes.
Here is what the handwritten notes say about the location: "Location -- by cabin by the tennis courts -- west border of Fort Marcy Park -- on path." The "path" referred to could well be the old road that heads southerly from Chain Bridge Road along the western border of the park.
So, still some speculation here, but given my reasoning in the CIR in the absence of points one and two above, well, I guess I should say that I was most intrigued when I read the FBI handwritten interview notes for this female teenage witness.
If you have access to Map V (R) of the CIR, either in hardcopy or from one of the web sites, I encourage you to read this post while looking over Map V (R) since it makes my comments eaaiser to visualize.
When I saw Coy Copeland and Jeff Green at the Starr OIC for about 40 minutes late last March, they told me that there were several CIRs sitting on desks around the Starr OIC, so I will fax a copy of this post on an FYI basis to Mr. Copeland since he indicated to me during our "interview" (not a "real" interview) that the Starr OIC wanted to see everything I had re the death of Vince Foster.
Warm regards,
Hugh S.