No evidence SC was religious.
I think she may have attended church a couple of times shortly before the tragedy (CAL's book from memory) but this seemed to be as a result of lonliness and a means to meet people. She sent a letter to AE saying she had found God in a positive way, or words to this effect, but those who knew her well eg CC, Freddie and her female friends make no ref to SC and religion. I don't think JB did either?
As far as I am aware blood on the bible wasn't tested? It may well have been June's blood and the bible might have been moved by the raid team opening the connecting door to the box room.
There was evidence from various people that Sheila had recently become religious. They said as a result of such she became closer to June than she had been in the past as they bonded over religion. Her own doctor as well as Anne discussed this.
There is nothing to suggest she had extreme religious views or had become a part of some cult or anything like that. They simply said she became religious.
Jeremy decided to use this to his advantage and thus planted the Bible near her to try to suggest some sort of religious mania came over her because of her illness. Perhaps he was trying to suggest more but we will never know what he was trying to get at in full.
What we do know is simple. After she was dead he opened the Bible to a particular page. Either by accident or on purpose he closed it and then reopened it to the same exact page. Then he stuck it face down in a pool of blood that formed after he moved her body flat. Maybe he had to move the Bible to drag her flat and that was why it closed.
His defense team failed to figure out what page the Bible had been opened to and thus at trial made no specific suggestions about the meaning of select passages. On appeal they realized the blood was on 2 pages thus assumed it had to have been opened to such page and then tried to assert the passage was a suicide note. Jeremy could not indicate why he picked those pages without giving away he was the one who committed the murders so left this speculation up to his lawyers entirely.
The inside of Sheila's hands were free of blood. She could not have gotten blood of other victims on the Bible from her hands. It is quite clear the killer's gloves had blood and got it on the Bible. More importantly it is not possible for Sheila to have placed it face down in a pool of blood that formed after she died and was dragged flat. That is a strong piece of evidence that the prosecution totally missed until the case was on appeal. The police missed this showing they were not very good and so did the lab which failed to really investigate the mater by looking at the photos and trying to assess how the blood got on it. They totally overlooked the possible significance.
The defense may have realized this pitfall and failed to discuss the Bible as a result. That would actually be quite smart on their part. It is dumb to help clue the prosecution into evidence they failed to recognize but does happen because some lawyers are stupid.
