Sometimes we get great tips into the Treehouse on the George Zimmerman case but we just don’t know what to do with them.   Generally when the submission provides only text narrative (no videos or pictures) we are left trying to interpret what they are sharing.   This is one such example.
Obviously a lot of thought and research went into this outline.  Unfortunately,  we do not know precisely what pictures/angles have been reviewed and so the pictures are only our best guess (you can click to enlarge).  In addition we do not independently possess the video(s) the author, JR, describes.  However, if someone else does please share the links and we will attempt to embedd.   Thanks, Sundance 
From Treeper JR – Have you looked at the clubhouse videos? I’m pretty sure they show Zimmerman looking for Martin, just before he called the police.

It may help to get an idea of what the layout of the clubhouse is. Go to Bing maps. (1111 Retreat View Circle, Sanford, Florida)  Bing is Microsoft’s response to Google, but rather than using satellite images they use aerial photography, which gives you a real 3D image. The problem is that the images are from different vintages, so as you rotate the image, you get different vintages – and some are old enough to show RTL under construction and a trailer sales office where the clubhouse is.

But pan across the street to the north so you are looking at the school, and rotate for a view from the south, and pan SLOWLY to the south, and you will get an image of the clubhouse from the south (make sure you don’t go past the pool)
The key is that there an overhang formed by the clubhouse roof, north of the pool. There is a fence between this area and the pool deck, but probably just to keep toddlers from running towards the pool. One of the newsletters states that the pool may only used during daylight (according to Florida law – so it probably has something to do with pools without a lifeguard on duty, that don’t have controlled entry).

The mailboxes are immediately to the east of this covered area. They are in the center of the covered area, with the doors facing outward.
Because of this, it is really poor shelter, when you could move 10 feet to get under the overhang – the disadvantage is that it is not as dark, if you wanted to smoke (there are a couple of ashtrays though). On the other hand, why would you choose a place close to the street.

All the videos are 45 minutes long, at a really slow frame rate, less than one per second. But if you watch, you can definitely see the lights from the emergency equipment in the last part of the videos.
Because the videos are exactly 45 minutes long (actually 44:59), I ***surmise*** they are from 6:45 to 7:30 (the emergency lights begin around 35 minutes into the video or 7:20 pm).
The key video is the East Pool Hall video. This is shot facing eastward in the overhang area north of the pool. In the very end you can see part of the mailboxes.
Watch this video beginning at 22:00.
At 22:35-40, 22:40-43, there is a glow in the gap between the mailboxes and the column holding up the roof of the clubhouse. There is one other at 22:48, but lower, so perhaps a headlight (from the side). There appears to be a white car that goes by at about 22:18 which may or may not be incidental.
Next see East Pool. This is shot toward the south east. Note that you can see the buildings on the south side of the detention pond, and because it is so dark can pick up flashes of headlights. This is particularly notable when the emergency equipment arrives.
At 23:34 the East Pool shot saturates.
So going back to an assumption that the clubhouse videos begin at 6:45 pm, then Zimmerman drives by the mailboxes at 7:07:34 and shines a flashlight behind the clubhouse, and then goes and turns around on Twin Trees facing west at 7:08:37. Maybe he flips on his brights. At 7:09:34 he calls the police.
I’ll point out some other things on other angles later on.
Why would he do this? Frank Taffe’s version had Martin coming across a short cut at the northeast corner of RTL. There are actually two shortcuts, one would be off of Oregon, but the other further south would be from the apartments to the west. The TV video of people using the shortcut appears to show more of a slightly valley, and I think there is a valley in the TV footage. If you are coming from the 7-11, the sidewalk ends at the first apartment complex along Rinehart.
You could walk through parking areas and come through the 2nd shortcut. It doesn’t really matter which shortcut though for our story, unless Martin was visiting people in those apartments.
In either case, Martin could either walk along Retreat View Circle, or he could continue southwest towards the detention pond. If Zimmerman first saw Martin here, he could have followed along. Crump’s original version was that Martin had been ducking in out of overhangs to keep dry. All the units have covered front porches and covered patios.
If Zimmerman was following along Retreat View Circle, Martin could have gone south to the west of the clubhouse. Zimmerman might have then checked in the overhang area behind the clubhouse.
Alternatively, if Martin had gone toward the detention pond, he would have come to where the side walk splits, going north between the clubhouse and pool, or south beyond the pool.
Where Zimmerman was parked, he could have watched either route, plus where the sidewalk behind the north-facing unit on Twin Trees comes out.
It is also conceivable that a neighbor had called Zimmerman. Maybe they said they didn’t want to call the police, or perhaps Zimmerman said he’d check it out when he went to the store. 40 minutes for Martin to travel a distance that could be covered in 10 doesn’t make sense.
Zimmerman never said that Martin was by the clubhouse on his phone call. He gave the wrong address for the clubhouse, “111” vs the actual “1111”, and he said that was the “best” that he could give – implying there really wasn’t an address associated with Martin’s location.
When the dispatcher couldn’t find “111” he asked Zimmerman whether he meant “111” or “1111”. Zimmerman replied “th- that’s the clubhouse”. He did not realize that he had left a digit off (and he had given the address at 15 seconds in the phone call, before he had given Martin’s probable race, what he was wearing, and what he perceived he was doing. The dispatcher asked for clarification at 49 seconds). So in effect, Zimmerman understood the dispatcher’s question as “what is
1111 RVC the address of?” (incidentally, there is a 1110 Retreat View Circle which is the first residence next to the entrance across the street north of RVC).
If Zimmerman was reporting someone apparently casing the clubhouse, he would not have said “the best address I can give you”. The dispatcher then confirms, “that is the clubhouse?”, and starts to ask “do you know–“, but then finishes with “he’s near the clubhouse right now”?
Zimmerman responds “yeah, now he’s coming towards me”.
How likely is it that Martin would be immediately adjacent to the clubhouse at the instant that the dispatcher figures out the address which was only the “best” that Zimmerman could give. No too.
So I think that Martin was somewhere south of the pool and walked across the grass between the pool and the north-facing house and Twin Trees, He may have been confused. Maybe he was remembering the sidewalk to east of the house. Maybe he walks diagonally across the western right-angle turn in Twin Trees, and is totally befuddled by the hill, and the truck parked along Twin Trees.
But back to the videos. They are likely to be used as evidence that Zimmerman was “following” Martin.
Some other camera angles:
***Front Door*** This is shot from very high on the eaves to the left (east) of the center of the door. It has a very steep vertical angle. If you look the right side, you can see the wall to the west of the door and then it turns north (the wall is east-facing). The wall in the left of the view is the complementary wall that faces-west.
That is the door is given a bit more shelter by having an setback of maybe three feet, and the eaves extend a little bit further north. There is enough coverage that would let you open your umbrella outside the door.
At 20:51 and 21:55 the west-facing fall is lit up a bit. This would be from headlights of a car going east on RVC. Since it is not directly in line with the street, the car may be fairly far west on RVC at a direction of WNW from the door.
***Rear Door*** This is shot inside, looking south, perhaps from the very north wall, above the front door and slightly toward the west. Though aimed at the rear door, it is really to provide coverage of the central area of the clubhouse between the front and rear doors. I don’t see anything in this view, but it useful for orienting some of the other camera angles. In particular you have the glass doors on the left (north) that can be opened all the way up as they are here,
or close the area off. Right in the center, on floor appears to be a large armchair (you can see distinct legs). The (open) door to the right rear may an inside entrance to the restrooms.
There is a flash on the glass in the lower front left at 20:48 which matches the flash in Lounge shot.
***Lounge*** This is from the northwest part of the building looking southeast. You can see the folding glass doors in the background, and the arm chair in the upper right center – in front of the rear door *from this angle* At 20:45 and 20:48 there is a flash off the glass door in the center left, and at 20:49 a flash off the wall in the upper right. This
probably corresponds to the front door 20:51 flash. At 21:53-55 there is a flash along the extreme lower right corner. It
might not be that bright, given that the room is dark.
Because the frame rate is slow, it may be hard to pick up lights of vehicles. 15 mph is 22 feet/second, so if the vehicle isn’t in the right position at the instant of the frame it won’t show up in a light through a window.
***Game Room*** I think the game room is through the glass doors from the central corridor. The view is toward the northeast from a location in the southeast corner of the room just east of the rear door. The window is facing north toward RVC. I’m not sure what the central light is. Possibly a mirror, or maybe a small window, There are flashes from 20:43 to 20:57, and 21:42 to 21:50 corresponding to the front door flashes. There is also a flash at 22:12.
At 22:38 there is a car in the window. At first I perceived it going east, but back up a frame and you can see the headlights on the pavement. There is is also a flash on the Front Door at that time.
***Kitchen*** I think this is a shot from the southwest towards the northeast. I’m guessing the kitchen, is more a serving area than food preparation, and is in the same room as the game room. The window is the same one as in the game room.
There are flashes ar 20:44-20:48 and 21:57. There is a strong flash at 22:10. This may be a car turning right from the entrance heading west on RVC. The window should get a strong flash from a car turning.
***East Pool*** In the upper right of the picture you can see units to the south of the detention pond (along Long Oak Way). Go to 22:00 and notice how dark they are, other than the lights that are on. Incidentally, I think you can see a reflection off the detention pond.
Going forward about 22:21, the background is lighter. Then at 22:34 to 22:45 you can see two headlights just the right and below the bright window. At 22:46 it is much dimmer and and 22:48 the background is dark again, 22:34-44 shines by the mailboxes in the East Pool Hall. So Zimmerman turns south on Twin Trees and stops by the mailboxes to have a look  behind the clubhouse. Do headlights get brighter when you put the tranmission into park, or maybe there is less draw on the battery whem out of gear? I don’t know.
Notice that the background is dark at 22:48, while there is the one last low light in the East Pool Hall, which suggests that is off Zimmerman’s truck. Perhaps even the license plate. The headlights appear to be on the building just to
the east of the gap between buildings on Long Oak. If you go to Google Earth, the angles work out a little better if Zimmerman is barely making the turn on Twin Trees (maybe 5 degrees east of due south), as he pulls away he is starting to make the turn on Twin Trees which would expose the back of his Honda Element.
Then at 23:34-44 the left part of the East Pool image saturates.
So Zimmerman comes along Retreat View Circle, turns south on Twin Trees, stops to look behind the clubhouse and then goes down Twin Trees and turns around. Turning radius for a Honda Element is 17.5 feet (diameter 35 feet), and the streets are 24 feet wide, but he could have used a driveway, and he had a minute to do it.
If the clubhouse videos are 6:45 to 7:30 pm, then he called the police a minute later.
Incidentally, there is some evidence of increased rain intensity. Take a look on the East Pool video at 0:00. See the seven chairs on the south side of the pool? Go to 11:45 and Play. Toward the end of the video it clears up.
I don’t see Martin in any of the videos.
The West Pool video is way out of focus. And the East Pool video is too dark to see any person in the background – and they aren’t really set up to watch the walkway south of the pool.
So this will be portrayed as Zimmerman following Martin, though he most probably already told the police the night of the shooting where he had observed Martin, and where he had parked and called police.

Share