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Paint Evidence

Introduction

Viable physical evidence in the EARONS case is hard to come by. Nothing related to fingerprints has ever panned out. There has yet to be a DNA match. The non-secretor status of the offender stood in for DNA in the early days of the case. Shoe size helps tie the crimes together but there's nothing terribly distinctive about it.

When the public became aware of paint evidence and the lead associated with it, it was undrstandably an exciting thing. Unfortunately, paint evidence has become one of the most misunderstood parts of the case. We'll attempt to set the record straight!

History and Summary of the Evidence

In 1977, traces of a very specific, uncommon type of paint were found at a couple consecutive EAR attacks in Sacramento. Detective Ken Clark of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department described them as microscopic chips of blue architectural paint that likely came from someone who had been using a paint sprayer. In the late '70s, he said, paint sprayers typically were used only by professional painters, leading investigators to focus on someone engaged in the building trades.

In September, 2013, those details and some of the others, along with a corresponding lead, were announced by the media. Sadly it seems nothing has come of the lead, but the details on the paint are interesting.

The insider PortofLeith was able to get information at the time, and broke the information about the paint down like this:

Attack #25: Paint smear on fence and gate, flakes on bedding
Attack #26: Flakes on shoelaces, vacuum residue flakes in the living room. Flakes in the bedroom and closet. A flake in the victim's head hair.
Attack #27: Flakes on shoelaces, pair of boots, vacuum residue

Chief Paul Holes sums up the paint evidence this way: "Blue paint was found in two cases: #26 and #27. I went back and scanned through #25 but did not see any reference to paint evidence being found in that case. Of note is the blue paint cannot be conclusively associated with being brought to those two crime scenes by the EAR. This paint evidence in my opinion does not have any probative value."

According to the insider "Sandia", there was also a yellow paint smear on a towel in attack #8.

In 1979, a blue-green flake of paint was found on Alexandra Manning's left big toe. It's composition did not match the one in Sacramento, or anything found afterward. (source: Paul Holes)

In 1981, history repeated itself and traces of paint were found at the Witthuhn murder in Irvine.

The Lead

The existence of the paint evidence led some investigators to entertain the possibility that EARONS had been travelling around the state to work at construction sites, possibly as a painter.

Investigators then found that a strip mall section at 5801 Calle Real and a Longs Drug store at 5875 Calle Real in Goleta had a building permit issued to a developer from Sacramento at the beginning of 1979. Officials say the building was being finished during the same time frame as the Offerman and Manning murders and typically, painting would happen towards the final stages of the project.

Due to the amount of time that had passed since that construction project was done, it's unknown how well this lead was able to be checked out.

Characteristics of the Paint

According to the OC Register, Larry Pool, a retired Orange County detective who began working on the case in 1997, said investigators have chemically analyzed paint in the past as one of the many details in the case.

There needs to be pointed out a difference between the "smears" that were found (which even Shelby gets into a little bit in his book) and the flakes. The flakes are a pretty substantial piece of evidence, while the smears don't seem to offer a whole lot. The smears were gray, and were found on a fence.

PortofLeith describes the paint flakes in this way:

The color close to the Ditzler PPG colors 13589 and 13602 [don't misread. Here we're discussing the COLOR, not the composition]
Not to be of automotive origin
Contained phthalo blue and silicates
It was also determined that the flakes did not come from EAR's clothing or a hard tool, but rather from a pliable material consistent with a tool bag or duffel bag.
The paint was flat, not glossy

Here's an illustration of the color:

Discussion

The important thing to remember about this particular paint is that the applications for it are very limited. According to Detective Ken Clark of Sac County SPD, this was heavy-duty architectural paint that likely came from someone who had been using a paint sprayer.

The reason for this line of thinking is that the paint contained silicates. Silicate-based paint is used as an overcoat, because it's a material which provides the surface with a "lotus effect", the name referring to the repellant and self-cleaning properties of lotus flowers and leaves. The silicates repel the dirt and encourage them to adhere to water, which then rolls the dirt off of the surface. The paint chips found at EARONS scenes contained these silicates, which is why it's theorized that the paint is most likely from a paint that's used in construction on building exteriors. Porous exterior surfaces are the materials that benefit most from this type of application.

Usage in advertising is probably not likely, unless the branding was used on something architectural. Also, the paint flakes were matte, not glossy. Automotive has most likely been ruled out, even though this was a common 1971 Ford Fleet color, because the paint that is used on automobiles dries in what, at a microscopic level, looks like a small mountain range. It's called a capillary texture, and the result is that lots of dirt and grime can wedge itself in. Lots of indoor paints and low-grade commercial paints do this as well. They need an overcoat similar to what I mentioned.

Concrete and masonry are the most likely applications. Even though the paint is waterproof, based on the color, pools and whatnot were unlikely. There's a rumor that there were traces of PVC plastic on some of the samples and there is a general consensus that the paint was flaked off of canvas like what you might find on a duffel bag.

But this is why LE has worked so hard to find commercial building projects that fit the timing of later EAR and the ONS attacks. When they found the 1979 building project in Goleta that lined up with an ONS attack and that used a Sac-based construction company, they got understandably excited but that lead has yet to pan out.

And when it comes to composition and formula, remember that we're talking about paint from the 1970's, not any kind of modern-day formulas. Lead paint wasn't even banned until AFTER the first few flakes were found! According to my research and conversations with paint manufacturers and workers, house paint of this time was often an oil-based paint, and the industry had just started moving away from this because drying time was ~24 hours. Latex paints were becoming more popular because the drying time was significantly better.

Also, "Silicates" is a broad term and can encompass many minerals and substances. Analysis revealed that we're talking about something more akin to silicate mineral paint, similar to what was described at this link here. Additional analysis revealed that the paint was almost certainly from a paint sprayer, that it flaked off of canvas and not a hard tool, and I've only heard this from one source but one of the paint samples might have had a minuscule bit of PVC, most likely from a machining or drilling chip.

Interestingly, at the Witthuhn scene a screwdriver with a DIFFERENT kind of paint was found. The paint was determined to be Behr paint and was something more typically used in general applications.

It's unknown if the paint from attack #8 matches any of the other samples.

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