Like so many, me included, I can remember the event quite clearly and remember thinking what sort of a lunatic would have done such a thing. It never crossed my mind that the adopted son could have done such a terrible deed to his own family and especially to two sleeping youngsters.
And like most people, I was not privy to the evidence in the case at that point and was reliant on Press reports for any news.
Jeremy set out to take advantage of Sheilas presence at the farmhouse, it was an opportunity he could not miss. All that had gone on in the weeks and months prior to that fateful night reveal that he had murder on his mind for some time. In the end though he came to realise that killing June and Nevill would not get him what he wanted, he had to get rid of Sheila and the boys as well.
On the morning of the murders Jeremy's conduct was clearly that of a culpable individual but that was not immediately recognizable to the police with one exception and that was DS Stan Jones. Jones was a seasoned detective and he wasn't for taking anything for granted. When he inadvertently encountered Jeremy and Julie behaving oddly just hours after the murders his suspicions were truly raised. He must have thought all his Christmas's had come at once the day Julie Mugford walked into his office.
In the end the whole sorry saga unravelled and the police began to realise that they had been played from the very first phone call to them. A crazy sister with a history of mental health problems goes berserk with a rifle which had been conveniently laid out the previous night. The police bought it, hook, line and sinker! A clear cut case of four murders and a suicide as DC Taff Jones called it just before he sped off to the golf course and a destiny which within weeks would see him fall from a ladder at home and sustain fatal injuries.
It's a true saying though, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. {attributed to Abraham Lincoln}
