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Where can we look for the basic story of the Lindbergh kidnapping case?

While newsreels of the time documented the Lindbergh case in ways that encouraged viewers to develop strong feelings about the story, more recently written sources tend to focus on the many factual details of the case. No organization has a better reason for doing that than the Federal Bureau of Investigation--the FBI. On its website, the FBI provides detailed accounts of all its most important cases. And naturally, the bureau wants to appear objective rather than emotional about facts surrounding cases it has pursued. (That is its job, after all.)

Read this first section of the FBI's write-up about the Lindbergh kidnapping case. What language tells you that this account is meant to be simply a presentation of the facts as they happened--in other words, a mere sequence of events?

Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., 20-month-old son of the famous aviator and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was kidnapped about 9:00 p.m., on March 1, 1932, from the nursery on the second floor of the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, New Jersey. The child's absence was discovered and reported to his parents, who were then at home, at approximately 10:00 p.m. by the child's nurse, Betty Gow. A search of the premises was immediately made and a ransom note demanding $50,000 was found on the nursery window sill. After the Hopewell police were notified, the report was telephoned to the New Jersey State Police, who assumed charge of the investigation.

During the search at the kidnapping scene, traces of mud were found on the floor of the nursery. Footprints, impossible to measure, were found under the nursery window. Two sections of the ladder had been used in reaching the window. One of the two sections was split or broken where it joined the other, indicating that the ladder had broken during the ascent or descent. There were no blood stains in or about the nursery, nor were there any fingerprints.

Now read the third paragraph of the FBI report, which departs slightly from the sequence of events approach. What main idea does the FBI hope to get across in this paragraph?

Household and estate employees were questioned and investigated. Colonel Lindbergh asked friends to communicate with the kidnappers, and they made widespread appeals for the kidnappers to start negotiations. Various underworld characters were dealt with in attempts to contact the kidnappers, and numerous clues were advanced and exhausted.

Question

What main idea does this last paragraph develop?

It suggests that the FBI did a good job investigating the crime scene--that "numerous clues were advanced and exhausted."