S.I.T.E. (Midlands Chapter): Location Re-Port 1.4 (M) - Supplementary

 

All Original Images: West Leicester, June 2022

This is a brief supplementary to our most recent report on the site in question.  Society members, associate members and interested parties in general, will appreciate the pressures, both temporal and financial, under which we currently labour. Nevertheless, it would be negligent not to at least endeavour to report the latest developments relating to the case (albeit somewhat  superficially) in the light of recent events.  With apologies for the paucity of detail and in-depth context contained within this bulletin, the salient points are itemised below:

• The whereabouts and movements of the field agent originally assigned to this case are still unknown.  Repeated attempts to contact them at their last known address have proved fruitless, and our files contain no details of family or other associates who might be contacted regarding the matter. Sadly, the society has neither sufficient financial resources to retain a private investigator, or staff with enough time to conduct an investigation under its own aegis.

• Since our last full report, the society has come into possession of the accompanying photographic images. These were enclosed within an A4 manilla envelope, and handed-in to our offices personally by the manager of the launderette where the previously itemised notebook was recovered. The envelope also contained a receipt from a well-known chain of while-you-wait photo-processing bureaux, where we must presume the images were printed [1.]. It appears that these photographs were subsequently inserted between the pages of the notebook, but may have been blown into the interior of the premises at the time it was dropped or discarded. 

• The paper-based prints were gathered from various locations within the launderette's interior by the manager in question, during a routine inspection visit. Whilst most were scattered across the floor, and in various corners, two were found protruding from a narrow gap between a washing machine and its neighbouring tumble dryer. Another was recovered from with a waste bin, where it had apparently survived after adhering to the underside of the plastic flip-top assembly (presumably whilst damp).

All Image Manipulations: October 2022

• As with the notebook itself, it is impossible to establish exactly how long the photographs remained at the launderette. Inevitably, given the humid atmosphere of location, the heavy footfall of clientele, and the presence of standing water and laundry products on the floor where the prints had rested - a degree of physical degradation had already occurred when they were recovered. The versions shown here have been digitised, following attempts to physically restore them to some degree of legibility by our forensic and archival teams.

• Wherever possible, evidence of obvious physical damage has been removed or repaired. A minimal amount of digital retouching was also carried out where deemed appropriate. However, it should be noted that some of the visual degradation evident within these images appears to be intrinsic to the images themselves. As our missing field agent was generally regarded to be a competent photographer (and assuming the photographs are indeed their work), it would therefore seem feasible to surmise that the images underwent some form of atmospheric, electrical or (al)chemical transformation at the actual moment of their capture or during subsequent digital storage. Most perplexingly, one image clearly appears to display the effects of multiple exposure. This is an effect once common in a bygone era of film-based photography, but impossible to achieve 'in-camera' using the digital equipment routinely supplied to our field agents.  

• As can be discerned in these images, some attempts at rudimentary safety measures were in operation at the site under investigation at the time the photographs were taken [2.].  These include two varieties of hazard-warning tape and hand-written alerts forbidding entrance and relating to an 'unsafe floor'. These would seem tom add some evidential weight to the somewhat abstruse meditations on the nature of decay written in the extant pages of the recovered notebook.

• No further material clues exist at this time. As ever, the society refrains from jumping to premature conclusions in such cases. Nevertheless, we must recognise that the formulation of numerous hypotheses, speculative narratives, or indeed - confected conspiracy theories, are only to be expected in circumstances such as these. Certainly (and despite our best efforts), it has proved impossible to quell certain rumours (even within our own organisation), connecting the unsafe nature of the survey site to the apparent disappearance of the field agent assigned to it. If there are those who choose to believe our agent may have actually gained access to the premises - we can only emphasise that it is impossible to either disprove or disprove that opinion at this time from the evidence recovered. 

[1.]: The receipt relates to a higher number of photographs than were returned to us. We must therefore surmise that several more were destroyed, remain missing, or are yet to be recovered.

[2.]: The vestigial remains of these are indeed evident in the (presumably subsequent) photographs taken by our senior committee member).