Why was Luke not seen after school?

[Mr Apples]

There were no witnesses who came forward to say they saw him after school, he effectively disappeared only to reappear hours later at home.

So, what are you suggesting? That LM had devised some elaborate plan that afternoon to get rid of Jodi? I don’t think so.  Besides, he was home between 1600 and 1625 as per the landline calls he answered and made (he answered a call from Shane’s mobile at 1600 hrs on the family’s landline at Newbattle Abbey Crescent and made a call to Scott’s Caravans from the same landline at 1625; this was accepted as evidence in court). Also, he was positively identified on N’battle Rd by boys he knew from school at just past 1800 hrs. This, too, was used and accepted as evidence in court.  So, he didn’t just disappear only to reappear hours later at home. The real crux of the matter is his whereabouts between 1625 hrs and 1800 hrs — and, of course, he was caught out between those crucial times, too.

[mrswah]

So, what are you suggesting? That LM had devised some elaborate plan that afternoon to get rid of Jodi? I don’t think so.  Besides, he was home between 1600 and 1625 as per the landline calls he answered and made (he answered a call from Shane’s mobile at 1600 hrs on the family’s landline at Newbattle Abbey Crescent and made a call to Scott’s Caravans from the same landline at 1625; this was accepted as evidence in court). Also, he was positively identified on N’battle Rd by boys he knew from school at just past 1800 hrs. This, too, was used and accepted as evidence in court.  So, he didn’t just disappear only to reappear hours later at home. The real crux of the matter is his whereabouts between 1625 hrs and 1800 hrs — and, of course, he was caught out between those crucial times, too.

And was it not Jodi's idea to meet up with him?

[Mr Apples]

And was it not Jodi's idea to meet up with him?

That was never ascertained and, like every other facet of this case, there is some ambiguity about what happened or what was supposed to happen. Luke claimed that Jodi was coming to over to Newbattle to meet him (which I don’t believe), but the Joneses said that Jodi indicated that she and Luke would be ‘mucking about up there/here’ (the inference being that they would be in Easthouses). I think the general consensus is that they normally would meet halfway on the Roan’s Dyke Path or that Luke would meet her at Easthouses and then they’d go wherever they had planned to go. Judith had stipulated that Jodi hadn’t to walk the path due to its seclusion, so it stands to reason that Luke likely met her at the Easthouses end so as to put her out of harm’s way (it was common knowledge that Jodi still sometimes walked the path on her own, despite her mother’s warnings). The thing that bamboozles me is that there doesn’t appear to have been any attempts made by either the defence or prosecution to obtain Luke & Jodi’s text exchanges between 1638 and up until she died. The text exchanges were deleted, but mobile phone operators retained the info for a year before completely erasing them so there was ample opportunity for the police and Luke’s legal team to do so (admittedly either of them had only about 2 months to obtain the texts and not a year, since Luke wasn’t arrested until April 2004, but given the potential evedential importance of the messages, then, it is surprising they never did this).  Or maybe they did, but the it didn’t yield any results. Another bone of contention was the lack of cell site analysis, but, again, perhaps the police had done this and there were no conclusive results as the data couldn’t pinpoint exactly where a person was at a given time (the technology back then could only locate a person to the nearest few miles, which was useless); also, unfortunately, technology back in 2003/04 didn’t have GPS. (In the case of the defence, they were denied cell site analysis because the Legal Aid Board said it was too expensive.)

[rulesapply]

Talk about throwing a spanner in the works! Who is this woman, WW? Marion O’Sullivan? The woman who drove by the N’battle rd with her partner Derek Hamilton around 1800 that day? This couple testified in court that they identified a young male wearing a green bomber jacket, but were unambiguous that it definitely was not Mitchell. Or is this another witness?

People who saw a youth on N’battle road wearing either a green parka or green bomber jacket on 30.06.03:

F&W, the 3 boys on push bikes, MO & her partner DH and the woman who was an employee of the Scottish Executive. 8 people in total. Am I missing something?

They described the bomber jacket but were adamant the boy was a different boy than Luke, in court. The sighting of two different boys wasn't witnessed by anyone at all. Those witnesses didn't know Luke and didn't identify him but W&F didn't know Luke but did identify him in a longer, green jacket. I'm not suggesting that any witness lied and I'm not suggesting that because one set of witnesses testified to one thing then so should the other set of witnesses testify to that thing. I'm saying, what if every witness is correct and LM had help on Newbattle Road from another male?

[rulesapply]

You are absolutely correct. The boy seen by all the witnesses was the same person. The only problem is the jogger described by RW was never on the stretch of bridge RW described but further up, nearer to Newbattle college and at also exactly the position where Luke said he was at the time he said he was there.

I’m sure RW felt that she was helping nail a vicious killer. Within days of the murder the public knew exactly how horrendous this crime had been and I’m sure it would not have taken too many of the ‘is it possible’ type questions frequently favoured by police who aren’t getting exactly what they want from a witness for RW to acquiesce to changes to their recollection.

“  all said the same thing, there was something off about him, up to no good, looking dubious, and confrontational. “ The original statements of those witnesses claimed none of the above. Why do you continue to spread disinformation?

So not MK at all then? Did you just call Parky correct whilst selling the idea of "the same boy?" Must be, Parky! I don't agree. Whilst you're pushing the "same boy" story, I think there were two different boys on Newbattle Road but not at exacctly the same time and that's why I think you're pushing the one boy story. The witnesses who were there disagree with you.

[rulesapply]

It doesn’t matter that Luke wasn’t seen after school on 30.06.03, because the landline logs on the Mitchell family house phone prove that Luke spoke to Shane at 1610 that day (Shane phoned from his mobile to say he’d be home later than normal as he was helping a friend fix his car; Shane normally was back in the house before Luke, at 1530 . . . Luke normally got home from school around 1545/1550) and Luke used the phone to call Corinne at 1625 at her work (Caravan business) to ask what he should make for dinner. Sandra Lean has confirmed this. Besides, Luke was under the impression that Jodi was still grounded, until he received a text from Jodi at 1634 (texting from her mother’s mobile phone because hers was broken) indicating that she was now allowed out. Luke and Jodi then exchanged further text messages between 1634 & 1638, and had then arranged to meet up (unfortunately, these text exchanges wee never retrieved and therefore it was never ascertained exactly where or when they’d arranged to meet up later that evening).

Do you know if the Mitchell landline had an answering machine or some other kind of answering service please? Does anyone know? The point I'm making here is the logs are only proof of calls but they're not proof of who made them or to whom. An answering machine would pick up an incoming call so not necessarily answered by a real person.