Walsh Buttrape

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In the early 2000s, a rumor surfaced that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were raped by officer Tim Walsh after being arrested for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998. Although it's impossible to prove this never happened, there is no evidence to support this rumor. In fact, all the evidence used to support this rumor is not what it seems.

Where did this rumor originate?

The rumor that Harris and Klebold were raped by officer Walsh originated from a Columbine community member named Ron Aigner. As a background, Aigner owned the piece of land in Roxborough Park where the memorial crosses made by Greg Zanis were placed when they were removed from Clement Park.

After being arrested, as part of his confession, Harris drew a map of the crime scene where he and Klebold broke into the van and stole electronics equipment. Aigner saw this drawing and noticed a star drawn in the middle of the map. He turned the map sideways, erased a bunch of lines, and decided the remaining drawing resembled a Sheriff sodomizing a kid on all fours. Then, he posted his altered version of the drawing to various discussion forums, including CRTF, stating it depicted rape.

At the time, Aigner had been associating with Mark and Donna Taylor, and he told them he believed the shooting was their revenge against the cops for being raped. The Taylors brought this information to Mark's attorney, John DeCamp, who said he believed this was the truth. From then on, the Taylors became convinced that Columbine was the result of Harris and Klebold being sodomized during their arrest.

Below is the original drawing of the crime scene created by Harris that was included in Klebold's section of the 11k report on p.10589:

Harris' drawing of the van break-in crime scene
Harris' drawing of the van break-in crime scene

Below is a close-up of the part of this drawing that is in question:

Harris' drawing of the van break-in crime scene
Harris' drawing of the van break-in crime scene

Why is Aigner's modified drawing in the El Paso County report?

On page 9 of the section titled "Diagrams" (Marked 05 009) in the El Paso County report, you can find a fax that Aigner sent to the Jefferson County police that shows the original drawing of the crime scene plus his edited version with lines erased and Aigner's notes indicating it depicts an "adult," a "star," and a "child." He faxed them this page to get them to look into the possibility that Harris and Klebold were raped. It's unclear why they released it in the El Paso report, but this page was included in their original release. However, a controversial file titled "walshbuttrape.txt" was never part of the El Paso Report.

Below is Aigner's fax as released by El Paso County:

The fax Ron Aigner sent JCSO telling them Harris' crime scene drawing of the van break-in actually depicted sodomy.
The fax Ron Aigner sent JCSO telling them Harris' crime scene drawing of the van break-in actually depicted sodomy.

What is "walshbuttrape.txt?"

A single text file titled "walshbuttrape.txt" fueled the existing rape rumor. A long-time researcher known as "Research Columbine" (RC) was discussing the alleged rape with Aigner, and took notes on his claims in a text document. That document was titled, "walshbuttrape.txt" and was kept in the El Paso County Report folder on his computer's hard drive. This text document contained only this researcher's notes on Aigner's claims, specifying the page number where Eric's drawing could be found in the 11k (p.10589) along with the page number in the El Paso report where they published Aigner's fax (Diagrams: 05 009).

When "Research Columbine" uploaded his documents to his website, he also uploaded all of his notes, which meant "walshbuttrape.txt" was uploaded to his website in the exact same place it was located on his hard drive: in the main folder of the El Paso County report. Aigner scoured RC's website directories and downloaded all the documents, including his research notes and the file "walshbuttrape.txt." He assumed this text file had been created by El Paso County and thought it was released as part of the El Paso County report.

When RC saw Aigner telling people this story, he tried to correct him by explaining those were his research notes on Aigner's rape claim, but Aigner wouldn't listen. RC deleted the file from his website and Aigner accused RC of being a Jefferson County Shill for hiding the truth.

In other words, Aigner found a text file on a researcher's website that was literally just notes about Aigner's claims. He invented the story that El Paso had released this document. Had Aigner revealed the contents of this file, it would have been clear to any reasonable person that the text file was only about Aigner himself. However, he conveniently never published the contents of this file.

What's the truth about all this?

The truth is, there was never any reason to believe Harris and Klebold were raped by officer Walsh. This rumor was entirely invented by Ron Aigner and based solely on his edited drawing and a manipulation of facts surrounding a researcher's notes.

If the star isn't a Sheriff's badge, what is it?

There's a perfectly logical explanation for this. At the time of their arrest, the spot marked with a star was a large area full of weeds and giant rocks. The rock Klebold used to break the window of the van was huge and Klebold estimated it was approximately 18 inches long. While marking various key locations on the crime scene map, it makes sense for the star to be in the location where they found the giant rock.

Also, it should be noted that the area depicted in the crime scene map is not where Harris and Klebold were arrested. They drove to another location to look at all the stuff they had stolen and that is where the arrest took place.

Below is an accurate analysis of this situation made by the user "Shaman" from metabunk.org:

Map of the van break-in from January 1998
Map of the van break-in from January 1998
Location of the van break-in from January 1998

"There's a rocky area there that's popular with people, there's a botanical garden there to the South. Cars park by the side of the road, facing North."

"The supposed "sheriff raping boy" is probably the small area of bushes around the fence, about 100 yards in from Hwy 121."

Map of the van break-in from January 1998
Location of the van break-in from January 1998

"The scene matches perfectly, the cars, the regularly spaced large rocks, the bushes, the fence."

Location of the van break-in from January 1998
Location of the van break-in from January 1998 with Eric's map of the crime scene

"Of course that's not what it looked like in 1998, and the cars seem to be the wrong way (parallel, not perpendicular). But rolling back to 2002 in Google Earth shows that at that time, the parking area was larger, and cars parked perpendicular to the road, just like in the map."

Location of the van break-in from January 1998
Location of the van break-in from January 1998

"The closest image available is 1999, a year after the map was drawn, but it's pretty much the same as the 2002 image."

Location of the van break-in from January 1998
Location of the van break-in from January 1998

Here is the report of the van break-in:

Report of the 1998 van break-in incident
Report of the 1998 van break-in incident