The Park Police manual "Death Investigations Guidelines", opens with these words:

The reason for this guideline is to assure that homicides are not covered up as suicides.

In other words, the task of the homicide investigator is not to prove that the death was a suicide, but instead to prove that the death was not a homicide.

One of the indicators that a suicide by gunshot may have been staged to cover up a homicide, is evidence indicating that others could have been at the scene either at the time of death or when the body was placed at the scene.

The US Park Police at the  Foster death scene found Fosters glasses approximately nineteen feet from his face [209,479,629].  The Fiske investigation reported that there was gunpowder found on the glasses. The Fiske Report used the powder found on the glasses to place the glasses on Foster's face or in his shirt pocket when the revolver was fired into his mouth [217]. 

This raises the question "how could Foster have been alone at the death scene, wearing the eyeglasses when the gun was fired into his mouth, yet have the glasses wind up 13 feet below Mr. Foster's feet -- 19 feet from his face?" 

As described in the Fiske report, the berm slopes roughly 45 degrees (shallower in parts) and is some 20-25 feet in length [207]. Foster was lying on his back on the slope of the berm, very neatly laid out and with his arms straight down at his sides [1461], as if "laid out for a funeral".

Officer Simonello explains his theory accounting for the body position

"... when he shot himself he fell backwards... he was seated ... his hands fell to his sides and his feet slid straight and that gave you the position that everybody described as 'almost laid out for a funeral' ...
 

Officer Simonello found Fosters glasses approximately thirteen feet from his shoes [Starr report, page 57].

The witness who found the body, said Foster's head was approximately one foot below the top of the berm. 

Since Foster's head was one foot below the top of the berm and since Foster was six feet four inches in height, his shoes would have been approximately seven feet from the top of the berm. 

The glasses were found thirteen feet from Foster's shoes, and the length of the berm is 20-25 feet. Hence, the glasses would have been found approximately at the point where the slope of the berm levels to the horizontal (7 ft + 13 ft =20 ft) 

Figure approximately to scale per description in Fiske Report

Starr reported that Dr. Lee found bloodstains up to one mm in size on both sides of the lenses of the glasses and  concluded that "Mr. Foster was wearing the glasses at the time the shot was fired." 
 

In order to rule out foul play, the odd location of the glasses must be explained in a way which does not postulate one or more persons other than Foster at the death scene. 

The following material presents three theories which purport to explain the location of the glasses without assuming other parties were present. An analysis of each theory is then presented followed by a conclusion and a comment. 

The first theory is from the first official investigation into Foster's death (Fiske). For the purpose of this note, the theory is  called the Fiske/Starr theory since Starr accepted it. 

The other two theories are from Inspector Rolla, the US Park Police Inspector in charge of the Investigation at Fort Marcy Park. 

The conclusion is that the official theories used to explain the fact that the glasses were found thirteen feet from the body are unsatisfactory.   The location of Foster's eyeglasses at the death scene are inconsistent with Foster having been alone at Fort Marcy Park.

The Fiske Report then theorizes that the "glasses bounced down the hill" as a result of a gunshot to the mouth[217].  Kenneth Starr declared the Fiske theory was true.  From page 58 of the Starr Report: 

The analyses and conclusions of the experts and investigators in this and prior investigations reveal that the location where the glasses were found is consistent with the conclusion that Mr. Foster was wearing the glasses at the time the shot was fired.[166]

The Fiske/Starr theory postulates the glasses "bounced" thirteen feet or more uprange due to a gunshot to the mouth .. i.e. Foster's head snapped back due to the gunshot, the glasses were dislodged from his face and then bounced down the berm. 

According to Newton's first and second laws of motion, an object moves only in response to an external force and then only in the direction that the force is applied. 

In other words unless a force was applied to the glasses pushing them towards the bottom of the berm, the glasses would have merely fallen straight down. 

Since no such force is postulated by the Fiske/Starr theory, the glasses had to have fallen straight down, then "bounced" down the berm. 

The red line in the figures below illustrates the path of the glasses per the Fiske/Starr theory. The path is shown for both the standing and sitting positions. 

The Fiske Report also tells us that "there was dense foliage in the area where the body was lying [205]". In fact "... the natural foliage around Foster's body blocked his view of Foster's hands [207]." 

Thus, the Fiske/Starr theory requires the glasses to have fallen straight down, then 'bounced' thirteen feet or more down the berm through foliage so dense that it is supposed to have obscured the gun in Foster's hand. 

The photographs below show the dense foliage.  Click on the images to see a larger view. 
 

Photograph of Foster leaked to ABC news March 11, 1995 Foster's Glasses at death scene (photo obtained via FOIA action by Allan Favish)

Experiments by the author show that it is extremely doubtful that the Fiske/Starr theory is possible. 

A pair of old reading glasses were dropped from a height of approximately six feet and from a sitting position on a 45 degree berm with light vegetation (bermuda grass), and another berm with no vegetation. Several trials were run on each berm and from each position. 

When dropped from a sitting position, the glasses consistently came to rest between the authors knees . When dropped from the standing position the glasses never bounced more than a few inches from their initial landing spot. 

Interested readers are urged to repeat the experiment. After you drop the glasses and watch them come to rest only a few inches from their landing spot, you will fully appreciate how ludicrous the Fiske/Starr theory is. 

During an A&E "Investigative Reports" segment on Foster (aired October 12, 1996), Rolla was asked about the odd location of the glasses. Inspector Rolla, apparently not satisfied with the Fiske/Starr theory, offered two additional theories. 

The first of Rolla's new theories is that a "reflex" action" somehow caused Foster to jerk rapidly forward, unseating the glasses and sending them thirteen feet or more down the berm.

While this theory overcomes the problem of the Fiske/Starr theory by postulating a "reflex action" to propel the glasses down the berm, it is seriously flawed. 

Specifically, had Foster's "reflex action" caused him to jerk forward with enough force to send his glasses thirteen feet or more down the berm, he would have had to have had a second "reflex action" of some sort to make him fall in the opposite direction. 

Otherwise, the body would have been found face down instead of on its back. 

Since the Fiske investigation reported that there was gunpowder found on the glasses and since Starr found that "Mr. Foster was wearing the glasses at the time the shot was fired" both "reflex actions" would have had to occur after the .38 caliber revolver was fired into Foster's mouth. 

This is very, very improbable, if not impossible. 

The second of Rolla's new theories is that Foster, for reasons unexplained, removed his glasses, threw them down the berm and then shot himself. 

The only way to align the "throw down" theory with the official finding of gunpowder on the glasses and the discovery of blood on the glasses (found by Dr. Lee several years after the death, on glasses that the FBI said had no blood on them, by the way) is to postulate that Foster threw the glasses down the berm after the .38 was fired into his mouth. 

This is impossible. 
 

So the question, 

"how could Foster have been alone at the death scene, wearing the eyeglasses when the gun was fired into his mouth, yet have the glasses wind up 13 feet below Mr. Foster's feet -- 19 feet from his face?" 

The task of the homicide investigator is not to prove that the death was a suicide, but instead to prove that the death was not a homicide. 

However, in the Foster case official investigators inverted this policy.  Instead of taking the location of the eyeglasses as evidence that Foster was not alone at Fort Marcy Park, Fiske made up a ludicrous theory to explain how the location of the eyeglasses fit with the finding of suicide.  Kenneth Starr blindly accepted this ludicrous theory as his own.

The location of Foster's eyeglasses indicates that Foster was not alone at Fort Marcy Park.  The ludicrous Fiske/Starr theory explaining the location of the eyeglasses is consistent with a pre-ordained finding of suicide.