If you’ve read through the documents, you’ve probably noticed that Eric’s body was received by the coroner’s office without pants. Some speculate that this was a “Jeffco blunder,” but it wasn’t.
The most challenging aspect of researching the Columbine case is assuming that perceived discrepancies indicate a screw-up. It’s frequently stated that “Jeffco botched the investigation,” but that’s not actually true. A botched investigation is one that is carried out badly or carelessly. Jefferson County covered up many things, but the investigation was not careless.
Yes, they covered up interactions with Eric, destroyed their initial timeline, and have not released key pieces of evidence, including the full ballistics reports that show where police casings and bullets landed. However, that’s not a “botched” investigation. A “botched” investigation and an investigation with cover-ups/lies are two separate things.
This statement was endlessly repeated for years until it became “common knowledge. When you “know” the entire investigation was botched, you’ll see malice in honest mistakes like typos and transposing of numbers.
It’s certainly important to look into the details, but the coroner didn’t “screw up” and forget to document Eric’s pants.
Someone cut Eric’s pants off his body at the scene
Investigators cut Eric’s pants from his body at the scene. Although there’s no documentation stating why, the most logical explanation is to preserve the evidence on his left leg in the form of blood and tissue.
How do we know they cut Eric’s pants off?
First, we have the autopsy report stating his body was clothed in boxer shorts.
Second, early on, a man named Phil Tkacz – a firefighter from Kentucky – told people he saw photos of Eric’s body without pants, along with photos of .223 casings on the roof of the school. He was taking a course titled “Firefighter Safety in Police Situations” and the photos were part of the presentation.
Phil asked too many questions about Eric’s pants and the .223 casings on the roof and was promptly arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot up a local high school. I was in contact with Phil back in the day and we became pretty good friends online. He was a professional firefighter and was not even interested in the case outside of the questions he had about the photos he was shown.
Eric’s pants were misattributed to Dylan in the evidence logs, but are properly attributed to Eric according to the diagram.
JCSO evidence #1065 are “black pants” listed as items recovered from Eric’s body in the crime scene diagram, but in the computerized evidence log, they are noted as Dylan’s.
However, we know these pants are Eric’s because the crime scene diagram lists them as Eric’s and the handwritten evidence log says they came from body #12, which is Eric’s body.
When the handwritten evidence log was typed, the typist probably misattributed body #12 as Dylan’s. While they should have written body #12, it appears they decided to translate the body number to a name.
Evidence Volume I (p.11291)
Evidence Volume I (p.11594)
Dylan’s pants were assigned JCSO #8684 (assigned by the coroner) and Eric’s pants are JCSO #1065 (assigned at the scene).
Why is there no documentation stating who cut Eric’s pants off of his body?
Now we’re getting into territory that could indicate a potential cover-up. In the Library reports, everything is documented, including what was removed during the two bomb sweeps, what was not moved, and when the TEC-9 was removed from Dylan’s body.
However, it’s not documented when/how/why two out of four firearms were moved from their original positions (Hi-Point & Double barrel shotgun), including when/why the action on the double barrel shotgun was closed, nor was it documented when/how/why Eric’s pants were cut off.
I have a theory about this, but I’ll save that for a future edit to this post.
Notes (for my own purposes for when I come back to expand this with the remaining points I have yet to make):
900-1199 library evidence
8700-8714 Eric’s autopsy
8679-8696 Dylan’s autopsy
962 skull fragments
991 skull pieces
1010 hair and tissue
1025 skull pieces
1029 spent 9mm casing right by Eric’s knee
969 also spent 9mm casing between Eric’s legs
970 shot wad under Eric’s right leg
1105 spent 9mm casing outside of Eric’s right leg
1094 and 1095 were shot shells found in Eric’s shotgun
1065 black pants Klebold – misattributed, these are Eric’s pants
8680 bullet in Dylans body bag
8684 black pants with belt
8688 black suspenders