Who Confessed to the Murder?

[Nicholas]

Luke used the landline. I assume JuJ would have heard the phone ring. Of course as a de facto father you would have thought AO would be worried too.

And did AO know what Jodi’s plans were that evening

[Nicholas]

Luke used the landline. I assume JuJ would have heard the phone ring. Of course as a de facto father you would have thought AO would be worried too.

The question should be why did Luke tell his friend Jodi wasn’t coming out that evening?

[Nicholas]

John Sallens and Michael Neill

Didn’t one or both of these men refer to the crime scene as a ‘bloodbath’

Sandra Lean
‘Using the word "bloodstained" maybe gives the wrong impression - the branches all had spots or drips of blood on them - they weren't covered with blood’

‘The area where Jodi was found (and her body itself) were remarkably clean of blood, which seems very unusual ’
http://jeremybamberforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,9986.msg451974.html#msg451974

[Nicholas]

Didn’t one or both of these men refer to the crime scene as a ‘bloodbath’

Sandra Lean
‘Using the word "bloodstained" maybe gives the wrong impression - the branches all had spots or drips of blood on them - they weren't covered with blood’

‘The area where Jodi was found (and her body itself) were remarkably clean of blood, which seems very unusual’
http://jeremybamberforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,9986.msg451974.html#msg451974

Was blood ever found on Luke Mitchell’s footwear - from having climbed over the wall - when he was with the search party?

[Mr Apples]

Mr Frankland claimed to have seen Mitchell at 22:00hrs when he ‘settled down to watch television’

Do you have a link to what MF said? Haven’t read about him before on other websites that discuss this case. I don’t doubt he said that, but he could’ve been mistaken for 2100 (when LM walked home for the evening after hanging with his friends at the Newbattle end) or 2230-2245 (when LM was taking Mia out for her last pee of the night as per ‘saving CM’s legs’). We can all only speculate, which is all the more difficult given we haven’t got the case files in front of us.

[Nicholas]

Do you have a link to what MF said? Haven’t read about him before on other websites that discuss this case.

The 10pm sighting of Luke Mitchell by his neighbour is referred to in the CoA judgment

[Nicholas]

or 2230-2245 (when LM was taking Mia out for her last pee of the night as per ‘saving CM’s legs’). We can all only speculate, which is all the more difficult given we haven’t got the case files in front of us.

Do Luke Mitchell’s police statements say he took Mia out for a walk on his own late at night - past his curfew time - because Corrine needed to ‘save her legs’?

And do Corrine and Shane’s statements support this?

[Nicholas]

When did AO tell JuJ Luke had phoned?

The CoA states at para 11,

“Ovens informed Judith Jones about this call” but doesn’t give a time of when he did so

[Mr Apples]

But his curfew was 10pm?

I think it’s safe to assume that as it was Mia’s last walk/pee of the night, CM assumed LM wouldn’t be venturing far from the house with the dog. As regards CM or SM not going with Luke, again, we can only speculate. CM was likely tired (hence why she’d asked Luke to save her legs earlier) and I suspect SM either couldn’t be bothered, wasn’t in or didn’t have the greatest relationship with his brother (I think SM is about 8 or 9 years older than Luke). Also, bear in mind that it was slap bang in the middle of summer, so, even though it was late, there would still have been some light when he set off to look for Jodi; he also had the dog, a torch andcInthink CM knew he was going to meet up with members of Jodi’s family, anyway.

[Nicholas]

Do you have a link to what MF said? Haven’t read about him before on other websites that discuss this case. I don’t doubt he said that, but he could’ve been mistaken for 2100 (when LM walked home for the evening after hanging with his friends at the Newbattle end) or 2230-2245 (when LM was taking Mia out for her last pee of the night as per ‘saving CM’s legs’). We can all only speculate, which is all the more difficult given we haven’t got the case files in front of us.

Nicholas Frankland “had been busy doing DIY” - therefore unlikely he saw Luke at around 9pm from his window walking past

[Nicholas]

I think it’s safe to assume that as it was Mia’s last walk/pee of the night, CM assumed LM wouldn’t be venturing far from the house with the dog. As regards CM or SM not going with Luke, again, we can only speculate. CM was likely tired (hence why she’d asked Luke to save her legs earlier) and I suspect SM either couldn’t be bothered, wasn’t in or didn’t have the greatest relationship with his brother (I think SM is about 8 or 9 years older than Luke). Also, bear in mind that it was slap bang in the middle of summer, so, even though it was late, there would still have been some light when he set off to look for Jodi; he also had the dog, a torch andcInthink CM knew he was going to meet up with members of Jodi’s family, anyway.

If Mia needed a pee couldn’t Corrine have let her go for one in the back garden?

[Nicholas]

According to Corinne’s interview with JE, Luke didn’t have a torch with him at that particular time. I think after he received the text and spoke to JudJ @ 2241, he went back to the house and told CM about the situation and indicated he was going to go out and look for Jodi no matter what. Corinne said that she was worried about him going out as it was late (Corinne supposedly said: ‘Not at this time of night you’re not, young man!’ when Luke said he was going out to look for her), but Luke was insistent that he was going and Corinne then advised him to take Mia, which he did, and then Luke borrowed a torch from Shane and went on his way to Easthouses, via the path, with Mia.

Corinne mentioned that Luke had only been outside for a couple of minutes when he came back in from Mia’s last walk (CM had asked Luke to take Mia out for her last walk/pee of the day to ‘save her legs’, and during this last walk was when he got the text from Judj @ 2241). So, Luke was probably outside that night at 2235-2245 and then back out again at 2250-2300 (which may have explained neighbours’ sightings of him at 2200; perhaps the neighbours got their times mixed up; maybe those same neighbours mistook Luke going home earlier that evening at back of 9 that evening as the 2200 sighting).

And if Luke was outside at ‘2235-2245’ what was he doing where was he going when he was seen walking past the Frankland house at 2200?

[Mr Apples]

Do Luke Mitchell’s police statements say he took Mia out for a walk on his own late at night - past his curfew time - because Corrine needed to ‘save her legs’?

And do Corrine and Shane’s statements support this?

Don’t know. As I said, we can only speculate, and this is even more difficult without the case files at our disposal. I haven’t read Sandra Lean’s book, either . . . perhaps that clarifies it, with her being one of the very few people on the planet to have been given access to the case files.

[Nicholas]

Was blood ever found on Luke Mitchell’s footwear - from having climbed over the wall - when he was with the search party?

Sandra Lean
‘The problem with the V point is how many people had been through it by the time the forensics officers got there. For example, blood on a boulder at the path side of the V was considered incapable of providing any usable evidence because it could have been deposited there by police officers at the scene. The explanation for no trace of Jodi going through the V was the same, but it's odd that there was no trace of the wall on Jodi either. I've been through the V point many times and every time, I get "scuff marks" of some description on my jeans.
http://jeremybamberforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,9986.msg451974.html#msg451974

Luke was taken straight to the police station from the crime scene - so why wasn’t blood found on his footwear?

[Parky41]

By the time Luke contacted JuJ Jodi had left the house at least forty minutes before. As far as JuJ was concerned Jodi and Luke we’re staying in Easthouses so 40-50 minutes was an excessive amount of time for her still not to be with him. Why didn’t she call Luke again to see that Jodi had turned up? As a mother surely it would be the natural thing to do?

Mr Ovens statements "I told Luke, Jodi had already left to meet him"

Common sense yet again. This is an ordinary evening, his daughter had left a short while ago to meet with her boyfriend. The boyfriend phones and is told she had already left to meet him. It's early evening in summertime. The family go about their evening, probably not given this a second thought, why would they? There is no phone call back, natural assumption that the pair had met. They couldn't phone Jodi to let her know Luke had phoned as Jodi did not have a phone.

Another area of suspicion upon Luke, whilst it is feasible that a teenager may delete her personal message to her boyfriend, having used her mothers phone, why would Luke have completely deleted everything from his? Not so feasible? Who was Luke worried about that may read them?

It gets to this girls curfew time, It appears JuJ gives her daughter some leeway here, gets to over half an hour of being late and she is annoyed at her daughter, first day of all her punishments being lifted and she stays out later than she should. She texted Luke's phone "Right Toad get home, you're grounded"

As soon as this mother realises her daughter has not been with Luke - she is frantic. How do we know this, as by 10.50pm she is phoning the police. This speaks volumes to me. It shows clearly that this girl was not in the habit of not being or doing what she had set out to do - on this occasion it was to meet with Luke.

We have Luke, who tells his friend that "Jodi is not coming out" Who told this girls mother that he thought "she had grounded her again"  Who claimed himself that he was waiting around for nearly two hours on her turning up? Who knew she was not supposed to use this path alone, and even if he did think she was walking this path alone, he did nothing. By his account, she did not turn up, she was to be walking this path. He did not phone back to see where she was.

Yet again, clear, precise reasons as to why suspicion fell upon LM, why he could not be eliminated from the investigation.