in this case the surreptitious transfer of the evidence to the FBI, only hours after the crime, was not normal and did not follow normal procedures.
Why do you believe that the transfer of evidence was... " surreptitious"? I'd certainly agree that it was probably an out of ordinary transfer of evidence. In fact I doubt that all of the evidence in a case is ever transferred to the FBI.... It is routine for a PD to ask the FBI to exam a single piece of evidence ...but I doubt that there has ever been a case in which the FBI took over the investigation and demanded all of the evidence.
But I don't believe there was anything secret about the transfer.....
Why do you believe that the transfer of evidence was... " surreptitious"?An undocumented, or badly documented, transfer of crucial evidence within less that 12 hours after the murder, with that evidence being returned within 24 hours is not surreptitious? C'mon Walt, you know better than that!
But I don't believe there was anything secret about the transfer.....Fair enough, but how do you explain that there is no receipt for all the evidence turned over to the FBI signed by Drain or any other FBI officer? And why is there no similar document for the return of the evidence, a day later? To safeguard the chain of custody both documents would be required, yet they don't exist.