As Omodt and Kautter passed the Gwinnco driveway, the officer in the driveway had dismounted from his vehicle. Both occupants of the passing vehicle saw only the back of the officer. They both described the officer as six foot tall or less and slender, and both stated that he was carrying a flashlight in his left hand.

The Sugar Hill Marshall, Chris Robertson, was left-handed. It will become clear when the crime scene evidence is examined, that there is every reason to believe that the victim’s vehicle was unoccupied when Marshall Robertson looked into it at that time.

Karl Kautter remembers the officer as walking toward the civilian vehicle in the driveway, while Paul Omodt remembers the officer as standing beside the driver door and looking into the vehicle. The rain had now become just a trickle, and both Omodt and Kautter had a good view of the officer, but, because he was turned away from them, neither man could identify the officer in that driveway.