The concealment panels from the cells were examined. The holes in the ventilation ducts were measured and photographed. The depth and dimension of the openings allowed investigators to confirm the technique and to reconstruct the timeline of the work. The physical evidence from inside the cells was entirely consistent with the account West provided.
The vacuum cleaner motor drill was not found in the workshop. Its fate — whether it was thrown into the bay, hidden in a location not found by investigators, or taken apart and disposed of piece by piece — is not documented. The absence of the drill from the workshop inventory does not create a gap in the evidence of its use; the holes in the wall are evidence enough.
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## The Complexity of What We Don’t Know
Discussions of the June 1962 escape sometimes treat “we don’t know” as a failure of investigation — as if sufficient effort or technological capability could resolve the question. This framing is worth examining.
The FBI’s investigation ran for seventeen years using the full resources of the Bureau. It produced no evidence of survival. The evidence of death that it assembled was entirely inferential — no bodies, no confirmed crimes — rather than forensic or direct.
Additional decades of Marshals Service investigation, plus periodic involvement of forensic analysts examining the letters and photographs, have not changed the evidential picture. The 2013 letter was examined by handwriting experts and found inconclusive. The Brazil photograph was examined by analysts on both sides and produced conflicting conclusions. The age-progressed images were compared against potential sightings and produced nothing confirmed.