I want in this piece to start joining some dots together on this case, using some of the facts, clues and suppositions that I have set out in the previous parts. I said at the end of Part 4 that there would be one more piece. That has turned out to be wishful thinking on my part, and there will in fact be a further article after this one. In this piece, I want to propose a theory — or maybe educated guess is a better term — for what I think may have happened on 4th March. Then I will need one final piece to show why I think this theory helps to explain a number of other events and incidents connected with the story. Think of that final part as tying up some loose ends.
So what of the theory?
Back in Part 2, I made the claim that two of the most important clues in the whole Skripal case are:
- The people who were seen on CCTV walking through the Market Walk towards The Maltings at 15:47 who were very clearly not Sergei and Yulia Skripal
- The red bag that one of them was carrying
These clues are very important, because one of the first witnesses on the scene, Freya Church, testified that she saw a red bag at Yulia Skripal’s feet. In addition, we know that a red bag was placed in an evidence bag and taken away from the scene.
Of course, it could be that the red bag seen near the bench was not the same red bag carried by the person walking through The Maltings. Then again, large red bags like that are not exactly very common (walk around a town and see how many you spot). If the people and the bag have been ruled out, I haven’t heard anything to that effect in the media. Rather, they have been quietly forgotten about in the midst of a lot of nonsense about door handles and deadly nerve agents that don’t kill. This itself raises suspicions, and it is therefore entirely reasonable to suppose that these two people are important, and that the red bag seen on CCTV is the same one seen next to the bench.
There is also something else quite odd about those people, which at first glance you may not have spotted. Although the footage is not very clear, and I wouldn’t want to be dogmatic about this, I believe that a careful look at the two people shows that they are both wearing gloves. This would not be especially remarkable, given that it was fairly cold that day, but what is odd is that the gloves they are wearing are white. Certainly, their hands appear to be far whiter than their faces. Why is this strange? As I said in Part 2, although I’m not 100% sure of the sex of the person nearest the camera (looks like a woman to me, but others disagree), I am very, very sure that the person furthest from the camera is male. And as you are probably aware, men don’t tend to wear white gloves. Of course, there may not be any importance in this, but it does seem to add to the already large mountain of intrigue in the case.
Anyway, 10-15 minutes or so before these two people walked through the Market Walk, Sergei and Yulia Skripal left Zizzis restaurant. They did so after Mr Skripal became extremely agitated, demanding the bill at the same time as the main course, which he ate (the food that is, not the bill). However, this was not down to his being physically unwell, or showing signs of suffering any effects of poisoning, as the fact that he ate the lunch shows quite clearly. As I argued in Part 3, the most likely reason for his agitation and obvious desire to leave as quickly as possible was that he had an appointment to keep – one that he was perhaps nervous about, but one that he could not afford to miss.
Let’s now construct a timeline of the events that followed:
15:35 – Sergei Skripal and Yulia leave Zizzis. They make their way to The Maltings, presumably along Market Walk (although strangely there is no CCTV footage of this), a walk of about two minutes or so.
15:37 – When they got to The Maltings, they appear not to have gone straight to the bench, but to the Avon Playground (approximately 50 yards from the bench), where they spent some time feeding ducks. They presumably then went over to the bench, a few minutes after this.
15:47 – The mysterious pair, one of whom is carrying a red bag, are seen on CCTV walking through Market Walk in the direction of The Maltings.
16:03 – One of the first witnesses to the scene, Freya Church, who was working in the nearby Snap Fitness, leaves work at 16:00 or thereabouts, and sees the Skripals on the bench at approximately 16:03. According to her account, they were already “out of it”, which suggests that they had been poisoned some minutes previously. She noted that there was a red bag on the floor next to Yulia’s feet.
16:15 – Emergency services are called and the pair are taken to Salisbury District Hospital, Yulia by helicopter and Sergei by ambulance. Upon admittance, the hospital believed that the pair had overdosed on Fentanyl, and treated this as an opioid poisoning for at least 24 hours after the incident.
Later that evening – Police remove the red bag, and it has never been heard of or mentioned in connection with the story since.
Assuming that the red bag seen next to Yulia Skripal is the same as the one carried by the person nearest the camera in the Market Walk – who was not Yulia Skripal – we can begin to make some educated guesses as to what happened in those crucial minutes, from 15:47 to 16:03.
In Part 4 of this series, I made the case that there is a strong possibility that Sergei Skripal, not Christopher Steele, was the author of the Trump Dossier. Certainly, the connections between Steele and Skripal make that plausible, as does some of the material contained therein, as does the fact that Russia experts, such as Paul Gregory and Craig Murray, are convinced that the Dossier was written by a Russian “trained in the KGB tradition.”
My (hopefully educated) guess is therefore that Mr Skripal, who knew much about the origins, the contents and the falsehoods of the Dossier, was hoping to be paid off to keep quiet about it. Furthermore, my guess is that he was due to meet someone for this purpose at the park bench in The Maltings at about 3:45pm on 4th March (NB. even if the theory about the money is wide of the mark, I would still say that the rest of the clues tend to suggest that he was due to meet someone at the park bench).
Why meet on the park bench and why drag Yulia along with him? In both instances, as an insurance policy. Meeting out in public, albeit at a time on a Sunday afternoon when few people would be about, would perhaps be “safer” than meeting at home. Taking Yulia along with him would also add another layer of “safety”. Even so, if my supposition is anywhere close to the truth, Mr Skripal would have been apprehensive about the rendezvous, hence his agitation in the restaurant.
According to this scenario, the people seen walking along Market Walk at 15:47 approached the bench. This would have been about 15:48. Perhaps a few words were exchanged, or perhaps the bag was simply put down on the floor, and the pair who had delivered it walked away.
My guess is that over the next few minutes, both Sergei Skripal and Yulia looked into the bag where, amongst other things, there was some kind of toxic substance (which may explain the reason for the white gloves). What was the substance? First let’s say what it was not. It was not a lethal nerve agent, 5-8 times more deadly than VX. If it had been a lethal nerve agent, 5-8 times more deadly than VX, then they would either have died over the next few minutes, or they would have been hospitalised and suffered irreparable damage to their nervous system. Since neither of these things happened, it is safe to say that whatever the substance was, it was not A-234. Indeed, it defies logic, reason and all common sense to maintain that it was.
What was it? It is impossible to say for sure, but given the fact that they were fairly quickly incapacitated, yet suffered no long lasting and irreparable damage, what we are probably looking at is some kind of non-lethal incapacitating nerve agent. For the point was not to kill Mr Skripal – that would have inevitably led to a whole can of worms being opened about who he was and what he was doing – but to incapacitate him and hospitalise him for a time, with a substance that looked like it could be some kind of opioid poisoning, in order to send him a message.
Can we say more? I think so. The hospital treated the case as that of a Fentanyl poisoning for at least 24 hours. The reason for this can only have been because the symptoms exhibited were roughly consistent with the effects of poisoning by Fentanyl. What were those symptoms? Let’s turn to the testimony of various witnesses to the scene, all of which largely agree with one another (I have highlighted those bits that I see as most crucial in pointing to possible substances):
“He was doing some strange hand movements, looking up to the sky. I felt anxious, I felt like I should step in, but to be honest they looked so out of it that I thought even if I did step in, I wasn’t sure how I could help. So I just left them. But it looked like they’d been taking something quite strong” – Freya Church.
“It was like her body was dead. Her legs were really stiff… you know when animals die, they have rigor mortis. Both her legs came together when people pulled (her), and when she was on the floor her eyes were just completely white. They were wide open but just white and frothing at the mouth. Then the man went stiff: his arms stopped moving, but he’s still looking dead straight” – Jamie Paine.
“He was quite smartly dressed. He had his palms up to the sky as if he was shrugging and was staring at the building in front of him. He had a woman sat next to him on the bench who was slumped on his shoulder. He was staring dead straight. He was conscious but it was like he was frozen and slightly rocking back and forward’ – Georgia Pridham.
“The paramedics seemed to be struggling to keep the two people conscious. The man was sitting staring into space in a catatonic state” – Graham Mulcock.
“I saw quite a lot of commotion – there were two people sat on the bench and there was a security guard there. They put her on the ground in the recovery position, and she was shaking like she was having a seizure. It was a bit manic. There were a lot of people crowded round them. It was raining, people had umbrellas and were putting them over them” – Destiny Reynolds.
Okay, so what do we have?
♦ Firstly, we can say that it is a substance that possibly causes hallucinations (“out of it” “staring at the building” “palms up to the sky”
♦ Secondly, it also causes contraction of the pupils (“her eyes were completely white”)
♦ Thirdly, it seems to cause something like stupor (“he was staring dead straight”, “like he was frozen” “catatonic state”)
♦ Fourthly, it can cause tremors (“rocking back and forth” – see here for details on tremors, the effects of which include an unintentional, rhythmic muscle movement involving to-and-fro movements
♦ Fifthly, it can cause shaking and seizures (she was shaking like she was having a seizure)
♦ Sixthly, it can cause frothing at the mouth (which can be caused by seizures or pulmonary edema — fluid accumulation in the tissue and air spaces of the lungs)
There are a number of substances that fit these descriptions reasonably well. For instance, there is Carfentanil, which is an analogue of Fentanyl, only much stronger. Here is a description of some of its symptoms:
“Carfentanil has rapid onset [following IM administration] in animal patients, and is metabolized by the liver and excreted in the bile or by the kidneys … Signs and symptoms of exposure are consistent with opioid toxicity and include pinpoint pupils, respiratory depression, and depressed mental status. Other signs and symptoms include dizziness, lethargy, sedation, nausea, vomiting, shallow or absent breathing, cold clammy skin, weak pulse, loss of consciousness, and cardiovascular collapse secondary to hypoxia and death” – Lust et al. (2011).
Another possibility is 3-Quinuclidinyl-Benzilate (or BZ):
“Depending on the dose and time postexposure, a number of CNS [Central Nervous System] effects may manifest. Restlessness, apprehension, abnormal speech, confusion, agitation, tremor, picking movements, ataxia, stupor, and coma are described. Hallucinations are prominent, and they may be benign, entertaining, or terrifying to the patient experiencing them. Exposed patients may have conversations with hallucinated figures, and/or they may misidentify persons they typically know well. Simple tasks typically performed well by the exposed person may become difficult. Motor coordination, perception, cognition, and new memory formation are altered as CNS muscarinic receptors are inhibited” – Holstege CP and Baylor M; CBRNE – Incapacitating Agents, 3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate. (May 24, 2006)
Let me clarify that I am not saying that it was either of these substances that was used to poison the Skripals. However, it is abundantly clear that the behaviour they exhibited, as described by various witnesses, far more closely matches the descriptions of the effects of substances like Carfentanil and BZ than it does A-234.
And so the sum and substance of this theory is as follows:
- That Sergei Skripal had arranged to meet someone at around 3:45pm at the park bench in The Maltings.
- That this was something to do with his involvement in and possible authorship of the so-called Trump Dossier.
- That the people he met were the same people who were spotted on a CCTV camera in Market Walk at 3:47.
- That the red bag that one of them was carrying is the same red bag that was seen by witnesses at the bench.
- That it was in this bag that some sort of incapacitating substance had been placed.
- That both Sergei and Yulia Skripal became incapacitated after looking inside the bag.
- That the bag was later taken away, and probably subsequently destroyed.
Of course, if this theory has any credibility, it does raise one huge question. How did we go from Mr Skripal being targeted with an incapacitating substance, to wild and wholly absurd claims of him being targeted with the most deadly nerve agent known to man? The answer to that, I believe, is that it all went a bit wrong, there was a panic, and in that panic a cover up of frankly bizarre proportions. In the final piece, I will be explaining how I think it went wrong, and then tying up some loose ends to show how I think the theory I have advanced is backed up by some of the subsequent occurrences connected to this very strange case.
What Martin said: Yulia’s eyes likely appeared white because they were rolled up in their sockets, as in a seizure. Even when the pupils are contracted to pinpoints, the coloured ring of the iris still appears normally.
Amazing level of detail in these posts, and the red bag now assumes a central significance whereas it got only the most cursory mention in the press. It has become a very believable scenario that Skripal expected to receive a reward or payment for some service or as a result of extortion by him, and that whatever was in the red bag was expected by Skripal to be that result. It is also quite believable that he was double-crossed, and some kind of drug or poison was included. I disagree that it was meant as a warning, and it probably was meant to kill him/them. The confusing thing in that version of events, though, is why the rescue operation was apparently ready to kick off as soon as the alarm was raised. If the aim was only to scare them, whoever set up the whole thing would have arranged for someone to find them as soon as symptoms became evident, rather than leaving it to chance where they might not have been observed for an hour or more, perhaps already dead. It does not sound as if the discoverer was part of the plan, but it does sound as if the rescue operation was ready to go in advance.
Whatever, this is a remarkable level of investigation by the author and the commenters, and it puts the mainstream press to shame.
A Theory…
As an ex Russian Hood, Sergi get’s some of his income from drug dealing, he may also be a user.
Cutting heroin and bulking agents with powerful Sythetic Opioids like Carfentanil has become an epidemic that is sweeping the world. Cut with heroin, it’s 5000 times more powerful than heroin alone. It’s killing thousands upon thousands every year. But it’s cheap and makes the heroin go a long long way… bottom line… it’s super profitable.
https://www.rehabcenter.net/carfentanil-laced-heroin-abuse-addiction/
Yulia brought the Carfentanil into the UK from St Petersburg, and somehow they both became contaminated after cutting it with heroin. Sergi did a big deal, and they went out on the town to celebrate with a little of the earnings.
Since then, a BMJ article published in April is suggesting that the Synthetic Opiod crisis has begun to hit the UK. Drug Charity CGL announced in April that it is investigating Fentanyl use in the UK, and has planned roundtables on this issue in Salisbury and Exeter in an effort to reduce future fentanyl related deaths.
On October 26, 2002, Russian Special Forces deployed a chemical aerosol against Chechen terrorists to rescue hostages in the Dubrovka theatre. Its use confirmed Russian military interest in chemicals with effects on personnel and caused 125 deaths through a combination of the aerosol and inadequate medical care. Researchers at the UK’s biological warfare labs at Porton Down found carfentanil and remifentanil in clothing from two British survivors of the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis. The team concluded that the Russian military used an aerosol mist of carfentanil and remifentanil to subdue Chechen hostage takers.
In 2015, Estonia was listed as having the highest death rate/million of the population from synthetic opioid overdose of any country in the world, Five times the European average. Yulia Skripal lives in St Petersburg Russia, just 80 miles from the border of Estonia. Alexandr Skripal – Sergi’s son, apparently passed away very suddenly last year (2017) aged only 43, while visiting St Petersburg, his death is recorded as being due to sudden and unexplained liver failure?
The UK government is obviously claiming that Carfentanil can be considered a Russian military grade weapon, because of the Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis, where it was used by Russian Special forces to bring the crisis to an end.
Yulia possibly brought Carfentanil into the UK for Sergi, hence the UK’s claim of a Russian connection, and hence why she’s still being held in the UK, and why she can’t ask for Russian assistance, and why she is not free to talk to the press. The deal is that if she and Sergi play ball on this, they can eventually go free, to live a life elsewhere, probably under a new identity.
so it looks like the coiple poisoned Saturday were the same couple seem in the alleyway the day of the skripals poisoning. Check out the old alleyway pic against the news pic of rowley and sturgess.
Witness Georgia Pridham, quoted above by Rob Slane, said of the man on the bench : “He was quite smartly dressed. ”
Now, James Puttock, a neighbour of Skripal, said of Skripal on 5th March : “ He never really looked smart, he looked very casual. ”
(Cahal Milmo, “How Russian spy’s Sunday outing was followed by collapse and suspicions of vengeance”, i news, 6 Marth 2018
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/russian-spys-sunday-outing-followed-collapse-suspicions-vengeance/ )
I don’t say it is the proof that the man on the bench wasn’t Skripal, but it goes in the same direction as the fact that, according to witnesses,
1° the woman on the bench was blond;
2° Ioulia Skripal, on this day, had reddish-brown hair.
It looks as though we have about 10 people in the UK actually interested in this fiasco.
Rob, we need to get you marketed better.
Anyway, just some old “facts” on the investigation below.
Notice the very large number of contaminated items, door knob not withstanding of course.
Below is the June 5th Police Statement
On Tuesday Mr Haydon gave the latest facts and figures linked to the massive inquiry, which has seen 1,230 officers brought in from across the country to help with the response.
He said:
– 250 detectives have been working on the case over the past three months, and about 100 counter-terrorism officers remain in Salisbury.
– To date, 176 searches have been carried out in the city, and more than 900 witness statements taken.
– 4,000 hours of CCTV have been sifted through by police staff from the national counter-terrorism network along with others seconded from five forces.
– About 14,000 vehicles and 2,500 pedestrians who travelled through the area at the time have been “assessed and graded according to their significance” by investigators.
– More than 2,300 exhibits have been recovered, 851 of which are being stored at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory because of “contamination issues”. Detectives have carried out 190 examinations at Porton Down.
– Officers have carried out 379 house-to-house inquiries, and dropped leaflets at hundreds more.
This is demented monomania… Meanwhile crime, particularly violent crime, is increasing exponentially, while criminal prosecution rates fall inversely across the country.
The police are no longer our friends – they’ve abandoned their founding principles and are now little more than government militia enforcing govt narrative / cultural marxism on the population.
Here, there is a CCTV footage different from the footage mentioned by Rob Slane :
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/poisoned-russian-spy-daughter-seen-12156418
On this footage, it seems to me that the woman with a red bag has brown hair and could be Yulia Skripal… It becomes complicated…
Time of Mirror video 4:08, Freya Church had already encountered the bench people after leaving work (Snap Fitness) @ 4:03 bench only a few yards from bench.
Front female creamy, light mustard bag, white Jacket, dark hair. Chef at Zizzis says Yulia (if that who she was) had black coat reddish brown hair.
Back female, with small dog, white bag, blonde hair
Male could be same person as in other video (Her Red Bag, White hair)
Clip below shows police car driving through Market Walk, this one shows ambulance car
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/poisoned-russian-spy-daughter-seen-12156418
Lots of witnesses about, timings odd – paramedics on scene within 60 seconds (4:16) of concerned member of public made call to emergency services. But why? Reports say police were on scene before call made to emergency services at 4:15 (were the police radios not working?)
Air ambulance that may or may not have taken Yulia to hospital alerted at 4:19, the crew got lost after flying in the wrong direction for 15km (took off Distillery Farm, Wilts and flew SW to The Flying Monk Brewery and circling before correcting course taking over half an hour to reach Salisbury a flight that should have taken 12 and a half minutes.
Call to emergency services 4:15, first paramedic 4:16, then another runs up to the bench 4:17 and paramedic cat arrives 4:18. Bench couple kept at the scene for 1 hour.
Anyone might think this had been very badly scripted or perhaps its time for a new word in the OED Skripled!
The air ambulance was called 09.34 a.m. 28.02.18 to Salisbury. Are you sure your tracking is not for that shout? That might explain location in Salisbury.
I just cannot believe they flew in completely the wrong direction you must be able to see Salisbury Cathedral as soon as you leave the ground in Devizes.
The couple that Freya Church says was 100% definitely the couple on the bench @ 16:47 (Freya leaving gym at 16:03) Another witness of the couple on the bench, Olly Field refers to female as “blonde bird”
Large red bag – same proportions & colour photographed at bench
Both appear to be wearing white gloves – colour definition pretty good throughout the clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKRd40pQ0lU
Red Bag at scene
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/47ab36587fe0578ee80ef97b7da0870833c9098f/0_0_2353_1411/master/2353.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=047be5ad495b0faa2f0f5a8ad08dc153
Another camera (not as well lit) @ 16:08 (*not sure where this timing came from)
“16:28 police car arrives followed by emergency workers”
NB Freya leaves gym (where she works) at 16:03 and almost immediately comes across couple on bench.
https://news.sky.com/video/cctv-shows-ex-spy-just-before-attack-11282995
* Private CCTV timing not reliable but as the Council CCTV (Council CCTV Working and High Definition incl at the Maltings – pointing directly at the bench)) is being kept secret from the public. The private timings are so unreliable that the Clip taken on India Avenue (adjoining Christie Miller Rd) had to be adjusted by 1hr 22min to fit in with the Official Narrative. The clock on the Devizes Inn CCTV was only out by 3mins. Which isn’t that bad except the car probably wasn’t been driven by a Skripal. Sergei Green Coat (police told Cain Prince) Yulia Black Coat – Reddish Brown Harir (Chef at Zizzis) but driver wearing light brown coat / jacket.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/03/14/23/4A31DEF700000578-5501599-A_man_likely_to_be_Sergei_Skripal_is_seen_driving_his_BMW_down_D-a-32_1521068413887.jpg
“Snap Fitness manager Cain Prince, aged 28, said: “Police had a good look at the footage and were interested in these two people.
“It was the only image they took away.
“They wanted a list of everyone in the gym between 3pm and 4pm as well.”
Mr Prince added that police said Skripal was “wearing a green coat”.”
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/journalnewsindex/16067205.CCTV_taken_minutes_before_police_were_called_to_reports_of_suspected__poisoning_of_Russian_spy_/
Thus, the witness Olly Field says that the woman on the bench had blond hair.
But Yulia Skripal, when she arrived in England, had brown-red hair (she was filmed). It is the reason why it was concluded that the persons on the Maltings CCTV were not the Skripals.
Now, if the hair of Yulia Skripal was still brown-red on the day of the bench scene and if Olly Field was right about the blond hair of the woman on the bench (and this is confirmed by Freya Church when she says that she is 100 % sure the persons on the Maltings CCTV were the same as on the bench), then the woman on the bench was not Yulia Skripal.
There are people who think that the man on the Maltings CCTV doesn’t look like Sergei Skripal. If they are right and if Freya Church was right (when she said that she was 100 % sure that the people on the Maltings CCTV were the same as on the bench), then the man on the bench was not Sergei Skripal.
It is the reason why I would be interested by Freya Church’s answer to my three questions.
Olly Field gave at least 2 original interviews and in each mentioned that the female was blonde:
Independent 7 March – “There was some blonde bird laying on an old man’s shoulder doing this hand thing in the air. I just thought they were strung-out on heroin. There’s all sorts of homeless running around so I didn’t think too much of it.”
Evening Standard 7 March – “I walked past them and saw them on the bench. I thought they were strung out on heroin. They were whacked out. The girl had blonde hair and was stroking the older man’s arm, like she was stroking a cat. They were both sat there staring into space. It looked like they were hallucinating. There was no one going to help them, everyone thought they were chilling out. They were out of it. I didn’t think twice really, he looked too old to be with her.”
If Yulia was not one of the 2 people on the bench, does that help explain how her VK account was accessed on 7 March?
On 30 March, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva posted on Twitter:
Yulia #Skripal last used VK on 7 March while in critical condition at the hospital in #Salisbury 3 days after the alleged nerve agent attack
https://twitter.com/dgaytandzhieva/status/979771197905932294
And if Freya Church is correct that the 2 people in the video were the ones on the bench, does that help explain why a helicopter and an ambulance were used… the ambulance took the poisoned couple to hospital and the helicopter took the Skripals away to… who knows where. Is there any reliable account of the helicopter arriving at the hospital?
Hmm… I just answered my own question.
Here is a March 7 report showing the air-ambulance leaving Sainsbury’s car park with Yulia onboard:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5747565/dramatic-moment-russian-spys-daughter-was-airlifted-to-hospital-after-pair-were-poisoned-in-salisbury/
And here is a March 14 report saying:
“Wiltshire Air Ambulance has confirmed neither Sergei or Yulia Skripal were flown to Salisbury District Hospital.”
https://www.spirefm.co.uk/news/local-news/2527336/air-ambulance-not-used-to-take-skripal-pair-to-hospital/
So if they were not flown to Salisbury District Hospital… where were they flown to?
Flight tracking paths show that the aircraft took off from the incident and flew away from the direction of the hospital towards the London Rd / Cemetery area and circled / did sweeps (could have landed) before heading for the hospital and landing
Thanks for the response. You had an interesting comment about the route they took going to the incident as well! Do you have a link to the flight tracking you mention above please (I can’t find it)? I am failing to understand why the starting point was Distillery Farm and the finishing point was the hospital… is it normally stationed at/near Distillery farm? And I wonder why would it go to the hospital if it was not used to take the Skripals to the hospital…
No it took of from base and flew to Distillery Farm and landed for about half an hour from memory, I have the full track somewhere but if you have a play with this tracker you will see some of the earlier & later detail.
https://planefinder.net
Not intuitive but have a play and you may get there
Zoom in Wiltshire with Malmesbury in view at top of screen and Salisbury bottom
Goto “Map” in toolbar top right: Scroll down click on “Playback”
Put Sun Mar 4th @ 16:30pm into Date / Time box (by using back arrows on calendar & numbers into time)
By clicking Blue Go Triangle clock will start and Helicopter will appear near Malmesbury
Pause Clock when you see Helicopter
When paused place cursor over helicopter it will show G-WLTS (Wiltshire Air Ambulance) – Click on it and its flight route will appear.
You can still zoom in and out of the map to get better accuracy.
But: Location Transponder does not send / receive all the time so not all route is mapped in real time Only Blue Line for when Transponder Sends/ Receives, Dotted Line for when Last and Next signals are interpolated.
Sometimes the track will disappear from your screen and you have to start over – a bit fiddly at first.
NB because of loss of transponder signal landing at the Sainsburys Car Park not recorded but video & photos on the day suggest it was really there.
I have a record from another tracker (will dig out if anybody interested enough) that shows more detail of the odd toing and froing (after take off from Sainsburys) over the cemetery before heading for hospital.
For same reason as above this track does not show the hospital landing but does fill in some gaps
use zoom for detail
https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/map?icao=406CBC&date=2018-03-04
Very helpful – thank you! I shall enjoy playing with that in the morning.
Well that was an experience! Certainly fiddly as you warned! Analysing flight data is certainly not my area but I would be VERY interested to hear from an expert what all this data shows!
planefinder.net, shows the helicopter at the hospital at 17:51 but also shows it many kilometers to the north at 17:52 and 17:53 – I have no idea what to make of that! It does not show the helicopter anywhere near Sainsbury’s at any time – all tracking shown is to the east of the River Avon
I posted above an article from the Sun that is said to show the helicopter leaving Sainsbury’s car park – so it seems that the transponder could have been off during the period it arrived and left Sainsbury’s.
Secondly, as you said ‘flight-data’ does not show the helicopter at the hospital (or at Sainsbury’s) – it never goes south of the river on any of that tracking. The furthest south it gets is Bourne Retail Park (around 17:14) , which is still north of the river and due east of the park bench. It seems to have made another short hop north around 17:50 – to the cemetery area which the police descended on the following day.
I don’t know how these apps get their data. Is it not from a single data set? I don’t understand why they show similar (but not the same) information. The only thing that seems to be consistent on the data of both apps, is that the helicopter was not at (or even near) Sainsbury’s!
Wiltshire air ambulance has a page on its website called “Salisbury incident” but if it ever did have, it no longer has any relevant information.
http://www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk/salisbury-incident
On http://www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk/what-we-do/incidents is a list of incidents attended. Including:
INCIDENT DESCRIPTION: Patient fitting, land assisted to hospital.
TIME & DATE: 16:19 04/03/2018
WHERE: Salisbury, Wiltshire
HOSPITAL: Salisbury District Hospital
Some of the other descriptions state “conveyed to hospital” – the above would, therefore, confirm that whoever was poisoned, was not in the helicopter.
I think we are getting caught up in the trees while we look for the woods.
Can no one ask the Plod directly- “Are these two in the video the Skripals?”
If they are, then the red bag is even more significant.
If they are not, then the two people are suspects.
But wait, we have no suspects.
One would assume that Plod has shown the video to the Skripals and the pair of them has confirmed that it is not them.
That means the unknown couple played a role.
But wait, we have no suspects…
If I lived in Salisbury, I would try to ask Freya Church :
1° if she is still 100 % sure that the persons on the CCTV were the same as on the bench;
2° what was the colour of the hair of the woman on the bench;
3° did the man on the bench look like Sergei Skripal as we see him on pictures on Internet ?
Thanks again Rob and may your days be long and entertaining. I suspect the character wearing light slacks could be male as their gait is male-ish. That could of course be because of the shoes and so I am imagining.
FWIW I note the light slacks character has a peculiar left leg use: the foot swings considerably so their toe points almost 60 degrees out then swings back to forward at point of contact with pavement. Is there any facebook images of Julia running or walking or has all that disappeared now? What does her sister say of this video?
Where and when was Detective Sergeant Bailey poisoned? How was he involved in the Skripal case? Would a Detective Sergeant be a first responder at a scene of a fentanyl overdose?
There is a simple answer: Sgt Bailey was poisoned in the evidence room at the police station when he removed the £100,000 in cash from the red bag. It seems that this only happened on the following day, Monday March 5th or maybe Tuesday March 6th.
***
So why the Novichok on the door knob? Sgt Bailey was never at the park bench so some other scenario would need to be invented to explain his poisoning, without revealing the existence of the red bag or the poisoned cash in it.
Hi Petri,
This is pretty much my hunch. As I wrote in Part 2:
“So how does one process this? Given that Detective Sergeant Bailey has not been interviewed by the media to confirm where, when and how he was poisoned; given the fact that the authorities and the media appear unable or unwilling to confirm this most straightforward of facts; and given that neither The Maltings or Mr Skripal’s house seem to be wholly plausible, both for the reason given above, but also because this raises the question of why others were not poisoned at those locations, I would submit that the most reasonable view to take – until evidence confirms otherwise – is that Detective Sergeant Bailey was poisoned neither at the bench nor the house, but somewhere else altogether.”
And as you say, it is entirely plausible that it was at the place where the evidence bag was taken.
Rob
In part 2 you say: “for the first 24 hours there was no suspicion of a crime having taken place” – so why was the red bag put in a police ‘evidence bag’? Evidence of what? Surely the attending police officers would have assumed it was just a possession and it would have gone to the hospital with the Skripals.
The official version of the story says DS Bailey searched Sergei Skripal, got his keys and went to the house. Now that is at least 99% nonsense but it is interesting because it says a search was carried out at the scene. If a search was done at the park, would the red bag not have also been searched there? If something was found in the bag, might that be why it went into an evidence bag? The bag was clearly handled by police in the park, so shouldn’t somebody have been poisoned and immediately hospitalised?
Why would a poisoner put cash and fast-acting poison in the same bag? Did he want Sergei to collapse on the park bench? If so, there was no need to put any cash in the bag… and why not just spray them with an aerosol to be sure of getting both of them with a good dose of poison? I don’t understand why Yulia would have looked in the bag at all, Sergei might have taken a quick look, if he was expecting cash but why would they both need to look?
What if the bag didn’t contain the poison? What if the CCTV couple were simply making a payoff to Sergei? What if MI5/6 knew about the payoff and ‘first on the scene’ DS Bailey was the poisoner? If there was “no suspicion of a crime having taken place” why would DS Bailey want to get the keys and go to the house? How did ‘first on the scene’ DS Bailey know where the house was?
One last thought (promise!). Were the CCTV couple set up by MI5/6 – were they supposed to look at the camera so that whoever was watching them could message the poisoner to get in position. One minute later they dropped off the red bag and the poisoner had seconds to reach the Skripals and administer the poison, before the Skripals got up and left. Is this why there has been no search for the CCTV couple?
One more thought. If the red bag held the poison, the very last thing the couple would have done was stare at the CCTV camera one minute away from the crime scene. They would know that the CCTV would be searched after an event like a poisoning – so they obviously had reason to think that it would not be searched by the police, i.e. they did not know that a poisoning was to take place. It might be difficult to see if they were wearing gloves but the red bag is very visible – a small bag, or one that blended with their clothes, would have been far more sensible.
I was thinking along the same lines.
There must be something wrong (too obvious?) with that scenario. 😉
Rob, I read that a second ambulance was cleaned up and is now officially decontaminated.
What sort of remediation effort takes 3 months?
One wonders, (OK, I do) why a second depot would be involved.
Col Skripal was transported the 2 miles in an ambulance. His daughter was transferred the same 2 miles by helicopter. (I would like to have heard the dispatch conversation regarding that 2 mile journey.)
So where does the second depot fit in?
Is it simply that later the one ambulance made several other calls including a trip to a second depot?
Did the helicopter require decontamination too?
Did the mysterious red bag make an ambulance trip too?
Hi Duncan,
A little dickie bird told me that someone reasonably high up in DEFRA had described the whole thing as a “PR exercise.” And indeed it is – only a very badly executed one. They started off with The Maltings “sealed off” with a bit of police tape, and then a month and a half later, put up some big fences. I live in the same City, and for the last three months, on a daily basis I have watched literally tens of police cars shuttling backwards and forwards between their depot (the car park of a leisure centre, because they closed the main police station in Salisbury a couple of years back), and Skripal’s house. What are they doing? No-one knows. I doubt that they even know, but it looks good for the uncritical mind I suppose. The whole thing is a complete farce, and one that hopefully will be revealed as such in the not too distant future.
Rob
Further to Mark Urbans newsnight feature on the skripals stay in Salisbury hospital. Mark is intoduced as the diplomatic editor. Wikipedia lists his full title as diplomatic and DEFENCE editor. I can only imagine that omitting the second half of his BBC role in the introduction sequence was to bolster its ‘integrity’.
Further investigatin of Mark Urbans CV reveal an actual 9 months service with the tank regiment and at the age of 22 his commencement of his BBC career as an assistant producer. A remarkable progression takes place and in 1985 aged 25 (Max) he’s the BBCs military man !!!
Smells like ‘it’s not what you know.. but who you know’ ?
I’m sure he brought a wealth of knowledge and experience in what is not exactly his BBC specialism ?
Steve States that Mark Urban is a diplomatic journalist. Reading through his CV, there is a long list of his published works, all with a strong military flavour. Mark received an award for his work on Cavell, who in 1811 broke the French Codes.
As a former tank regiment soldier, he conveniently focuses on Salisbury ( the home of the tank regiment, no links there then) ?
Given Marks fascination and published interest in military intelligence, I’m sure he brings, clarity, integrity and ‘experience’ to this window dressing of a ‘news’ item on a purportedly medical subject ?
As my posts suggest I have a healthcare background.
On that basis, the only credible testimony is from nurse Sarah Clarke, carefully considered and economic in the news night programme.
In its webpage Salsisbury hospital states it has a new intensive therapy unit ….. How new and how many beds ?
Any auditable history ? CQC reports etc ?
Why was a surgical director given such prominence in the programme, surely not Yulias ‘tracheostomy’ ?
Any readers have any contact with surgical or intensive care, ask them to review Yulias now, thankfully, healed scar pictures ….. Are they convinced ?
Oh, and by the way, regarding the medical aspect of the case, the thought that occurs to me is that it would be very interesting to have the perspective of the medical staff in Salisbury who treated the Skripals. Have any come out and said “No, this was not nerve agent poisoning?”
Some of the medical staff at Salisbury Hospital were interviewed by Mark Urban (a Diplomatic journalist) for BBC’s Newsnight. Their testimonies were hardly convincing. You can judge for yourself: https://youtu.be/CwhR6wqNEis
Actually, I think their testimonies were reasonably convincing.
I come back to the fact that none of them seem to question the line that they were treating Novichok poisoning. OK, they don’t have any experience of treating Novichok poisoning, but they are intelligent people capable of rational thought, and if Rob can do the research he has done and raise the questions that he has asked, so can they.
And surely they must be aware that people are asking these questions. And yet they don’t seem to have any doubts that what Porton Down told them was correct. Why?
it would be very interesting to have the perspective of the medical staff in Salisbury who treated the Skripals. Have any come out and said “No, this was not nerve agent poisoning?”
Yes, they have:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/03/no-patients-have-experienced-symptoms-of-nerve-agent-poisoning-in-salisbury.html
https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/21/what-did-the-salisbury-physician-mean-by-no-patients-have-experienced-symptoms-of-nerve-agent-poisoning/
It seems that 3 months later, nobody knows what exactly Stephen Davies actually meant. The question of what he meant has been raised on Off Guardian, Moon of Alabama, in the comments on Craig Murray’s blog, and (by Rob Slane in his ’30 questions’ post) on this very site – and still no answer.
It’s not as if he has completely disappeared and is uncontactable (as has happened with the Skripals) – so why has nobody asked him?
Perhaps because the reason is because they read this comment on Craig Murray’s site:
” . . . there is no conspiracy involving the consultant. Please don’t try to contact him… I think that would make a lot of people on this site look like the stereotype of conspiracy theorist loonies. His letter is entirely based on a mistake printed in The Times about 38 people showing ‘symptoms’ of poisoning. He’s saying that none of them had symptoms of nerve gas poisoning other than the three we already know about.”
If that is correct, then Davies does not question or challenge the official narrative.
It is not what Dr Davies said. Milosevic’s quotation is accurate. And Dr Davies’ letter clear states: “no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve-agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning.” This states (1) no one experienced nerve agent poisoning; and (2) only three patients experience poisoning (presumably referring to the Skripals and so called DS Bailey). This second point also indicates that the Skripals and Bailey were poisoned by something other than a nerve agent – and this point was also suggested by the evidence the government presented to the court in order to gain permission to take samples from the Skripals, which stated that the Skripals had been poisoned by a nerve agent or related compound.
There is no debate about what Davies said. The debate is about what he actually meant.
That is why I wrote ” The question of what he meant has been raised on Off Guardian, Moon of Alabama, in the comments on Craig Murray’s blog, and (by Rob Slane in his ’30 questions’ post) on this very site – and still no answer.”
And it is why I wonder whether anyone has actually asked him – and if not, why not???
I have just had a thought – and have come up with a new (and perhaps original) theory to explain one aspect of the whole matter. I hasten to add that it is not inconsistent with Rob’s.
Yesterday, I read the report on the BBC website about Theresa May’s desire to make “unskirting” a criminal offense, punishable by up to two years in prison.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44504656
I must confess that I had never heard the word “unskirting” before, and the whole thing seemed so ridiculous that I wondered if it could be an April Fool’s joke. However a quick check revealed that it was 15th June.
Then today, I had a further thought. Everything Theresa May has said about the Skripal poisoning, and in particular the accusations against the Russian government, is also so ridiculous that it seems hard to believe any intelligent person would believe it.
Putting 2 and 2 together, it suddenly hit me! Theresa May is utterly bored of politics, and behind the stern exterior, she actually has a zany sense of humour. So she says increasingly wacky things with a very straight face to see if people will believe her, and when she sees people believing her increasingly bizarre pronouncements, she privately kills herself laughing.
This seems to me the most rational explanation of what we are seeing.
The standard treatment for opioate overdosage is ‘Narcan’ an opiode antagonist. One injection can very quickly reverse the the effects, however, it can be of short duration and further injections may be required to maintain a conscious state.
I believe this to be a drug routinely carried and used by British paramedics.
Ewan McGregor in the film ‘train spotting’ gives a great portrayal of its effects when receiving treatment after being dumped outside an A&E unit.
I wouldn’t have thought a long stay in hospital would be necessary for this condition?
The set up by UK agencies was to take the Skripals out of public scrutiny, as long as possible. A locked down hospital ward is a good first cover for that, specially with a scary deadliest poison rumors.
Why should the Skripals not be allowed to directly interact with their family members, embassy personnel, lawyers, press – even not under full police protection? Simply because MI5/6 have something big to hide; just look at the government money spend on all the theatrics.
White eyes, possibly oculargyric crisis. A rare side effect associated with drugs such as haloperidol, a major tranquilliser used psychiatry. Other side effects includes excessive salivation and Parkinson like tremors ?
I don’t believe that the couple were wearing white gloves, although the CCTV appears to show their hands as grey-white for much of the duration.
First, the woman’s ‘left hand’ is probably not really her left hand but something she’s holding against her chest with her arm. In a few of the frames it can be seen how her arm is bent back a little and her forearm is horizontal. That makes it impossible for the greyish upward-pointing thing to be her hand.
The couple’s hands (that they are holding together), as well as the man’s right hand, are pink-ish in a small number of frames. The fact that that they appear grey most of the time could be due to the low quality of the recording. The camera’s low resolution and the effect of the bright yellow/orange floor would might it difficult to show the correct colour of small moving parts, such as the couple’s hands.
I agree, the lighter shade of the hands at times in the CCTV footage is a trick of the light rather than gloves. CCTV cameras often get exposure wrong as objects move, as the hands are in the case, swinging backward and forward.
Great article. This is better than a George Smiley story!
Quick question, Rob. Have you read this Daniel Lazare piece in Consortium News?
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/05/31/spooks-spooking-themselves/
John,
I hadn’t but very interesting. Thanks very much for the link.
Rob
Opiates like fentanyl aren’t readily absorbed through the skin. Fentanyl patches take many hours to get to the desired blood level. With opiates you would expect them to be cyanosed by the time they were unconscious but no one mentions abnormal skin colour. I think it sounds like organophosphate poisoning. These can be quickly absorbed either by the skin or inhalation and could cause symptoms in the right time frame. Symptoms fit as well.
Thanks Christine.
Whilst it is true that Fentanyl and Carfentanil are not readily absorbed through the skin, they can enter the body quickly by inhalation, which is why those treating them can also be at risk. This from the Public Services Health and Safety Association of Canada:
“HOW CAN HEALTH AND COMMUNITY CARE WORKERS BE EXPOSED TO FENTANYL OR CARFENTANIL?
Front-line health and community care workers may become accidentally exposed to fentanyl when working with a patient who has used or overdosed on the drug or its analogs, or when conducting searches of a patient who has the drug with them. Some examples of tasks that could be hazardous and would require risk assessment include removing the clothing, searching, reviving, and transferring of a patient who has used the drug or has the drug in their possession.
WHAT ARE THE ROUTES OF EXPOSURE TO FENTANYL AND CARFENTANIL?
Fentanyl and its analogs can enter the body by *inhalation*, ingestion, or intravenous or intramuscular injection. Skin contact is also thought to be a potential exposure route, but is not likely to lead to overdose unless there is prolonged exposure to large volumes of highly concentrated fentanyl in powder form. Brief skin contact with fentanyl or its analogs is not expected to lead to toxic effects if any visible contamination is immediately removed. It is not yet known whether fentanyl can be absorbed through the eyes. Overall, *inhalation* and incidental ingestion are the greatest threats to health and community care workers”
https://www.pshsa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/OOHFCAEN0917-Fentanyl-and-Carfentanil-Exposure-Fast-Fact_Jan-2-2018.pdf
Best wishes,
Rob
Interesting that you mention carfentanyl as a possible drug in this case. When I researched the Skripal case early on I found several mentions of it in the local Salisbury press.
It was/is evidently available on the grey markets in Salisbury. There have been several cases of overdoses in that area. The local medical personal would likely have known what to do in such cases.
Some samples
29th June 2017
Drug 100 times stronger than morphine ‘taking hold in Southampton’
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/15375568.Drug_100_times_stronger_than_morphine__taking_hold_in_Southampton_/
3rd November 2017
Mother died after ingesting ‘highly potent and toxic’ drug
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/15638784.Mother_died_after_ingesting__highly_potent_and_toxic__drug/
29th August 2017
Man admits buying and selling highly potent drug via dark web
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/national/15502076.Man_admits_buying_and_selling_highly_potent_drug_via_dark_web/
May 2018
Trio facing jail for selling potentially lethal drugs over dark web
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/national/16256244.Trio_facing_jail_for_selling_potentially_lethal_drugs_over_dark_web/
Thanks very much for these references, b. They are helpful. Actually, although I think the symptoms of Carfentanil appear to be fairly close to the description of the Skripals, the one thing that makes me hesitate about it is that it has a low safety margin. If my theory is correct, that someone or some people wanted to incapacitate rather than kill Sergei Skripal, Carfentanil wouldn’t necessarily be the ideal way to do it, as the low safety margin means it would be hard to get the correct dose to ensure that he didn’t die. BZ, on the other hand, has a high safety margin and would fit much better with the incapacitation theory.
But I wouldn’t want to rule it out.
Best wishes,
Rob
If you freeze the CCTV (of the couple with the red bag) at 12 seconds, they both appear to be looking directly at the camera. What possible reason could there be for that? When you are walking, you usually look down or ahead… So where is the camera and what else might they have been looking at?
Using Google Street View, I found the spot they were at. It is outside the SnapFitness 24-7 shop in Market Walk Salisbury – where Freya Church is the Assistant Club Manager. If you look at the CCTV image at 3 secs. there is a small brown triangle on the floor pattern (near the center of the image) because a brick is missing.
If you check this image:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.0696997,-1.7972648,3a,75y,165.15h,70.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1scbNxGqkkKjZk1pmo1m0QUg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
the same brown triangle is present in the floor pattern and you can easily match up other features in the CCTV footage.
If you pan around on the Google view, you quickly see it is a walkway with a low ceiling… and there is nothing to look at except the camera. At that point they were only 1 minute’s walk from the park bench.
You can see that the woman is looking straight at the camera all the time that her face is in view (for more than three seconds, from 11 to 14 seconds).
When her face comes into view, she’s facing a bit to the side. Just before it goes out of view, her head is turned round much more and looking upwards. The man also looks up at the camera but without turning his head as much.
Yes… all very odd. Another odd thing is that the police released a recording of the CCTV playing on a monitor and not the CCTV itself (which is why the image is wobbly)… why?
It is clear from the Google image that there is nothing else for them to be looking at and the only reason I can think of for someone staring at that camera is that they were supposed to stare at it… so they could be seen… why would that be?
I think the video of the CCTV playing on the monitor is from the Guardian. There’s another video in higher resolution that seems to come from the original recording, but unfortunately the end is edited out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoRurg3OytU
I suspect we may well never know what happened (or at least not for decades). The official story is patently absurd. Yet, there are many powerful people and organisations with a vested interest in maintaining the nonsensical narrative. Anyone attempting to question it is either ignored or, if that is not possible, dismissed as a Russian bot. Your attempt to construct an alternative explanation is likely to be dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” – a term dreamed up by the CIA to delegitimise explanations that challenge false official narratives. Personally, I think pointing out the evidential and logical problems and antimonies of the official narrative is far more useful and less open to attack than proposing alternative explanations, which the political media elite find so easy to denigrate.
Very interesting. For me, there is a little problem : Freya Church said she was 100 % sure that the people on the CCTV were the same people she had seen on the bench. She can be wrong, of course…
Just one small point: contraction of the pupil will not make the eye appear white – there is still the coloured iris. No – I think white eyes means they have rolled up so that the iris and pupil are under the upper lid.
Where are the official CCTV or e-fit images of the perpetrator?
Where is the manhunt?
Did the police ‘forget’ to have a manhunt?
If this whole business was just a way of “sending a message” to Mr Skripal, wouldn’t it have been much simpler just to phone him and tell him, “Any more of this and you will have an unfortunate accident”? (They could also have threatened Yulia).
As explained by Mr Slane, it sounds like a case of “Clouseau meets the Keystone Cops”.
I really wish I didn’t believe our rulers are that incompetent.
‘Secondly, it also causes mydriasis (dilation of the pupils) (“her eyes were completely white”)…’
Small mistake here apparently. I think “contraction” of the pupils, not “dilation”.
Thank you Tom. My error. I have now fixed.
Best wishes,
Rob
Rob,
Excellent as usual. From an analytical chemistry point of view.
Opioid overdose cases are quite common.
Do we belive that the hospital toxocologists, or the NHS toxicologists at a different site that performed the analyis on the victim’s blood and urine were instructed to faslify their findings?
BZ might be out of their remit, and they would have referred the samples to Porton Down.
As this rumbles on why is there no interviewing (not statement reporting) of the people involved.
Chief Constable, PCC, Home Office etc.
The media seem quite content to report on what they are told.
For example the “hero” status of Sgt Bailey. (Possibly the bag remover?)
At face value, he happened conveniently to be an early passerby.
He then searched the Col. Skrypal pockets and found house keys and identification, and then later went to the Skripal home to look for a suicide note or drug use materials.
Now, I admit, I may be a just a touch cynical, but where does the hero status become evident here?
Maybe he didn’t need to do the clothing search because Skripal was “known” to Sgt. Bailey and he simply left the scene to:
1) Return the red bag.
2) Make sure the house was “clean”.
With BZ in the bag, this could have been the source of his exposure to the world’s most dangerous compound.
By returning the bag to the Skripal home, the Chief Constable’s claim that that was where Sgt. Bailey’s exposure occurred is almost true.
In all of this, there is as you say a panic initiated cover up.