For me I think Nevill was trying to get to the phone in the kitchen because the one in the bedroom had either been moved, or simply disabled by taking the kitchen phone receiver off the hook. I genuinely don't see why Sheila would have been so keen to prevent him from reaching the phone, and I think the struggle in the kitchen was evidence that someone didn't want the police to know the truth about who was attacking Nevill. Put simply the struggle to stop him getting to the phone makes more sense if the killer was Jeremy than if it was Sheila.
I. The killer did indeed take precautions in advance to make sure a phone call could not be made from the bedroom. I do not believe the phone was simply left off the hook downstairs for a long enough period of time to prevent a call from dialing out. That would take a while for the phone to become inactive to the point that no one could dial out and at any rate had Nevill picked up the phone he would have gotten blood on it whether he picked it up in the bedroom or the kitchen. I doubt the killer would wash blood off the phone, indeed if jeremy were the killer the blood would help his story so he had reason to leave it on the phone had he relocated it to the kitchen. In fact there is no reason to relocate it to the kitchen. He could have claimed Nevill made the call to him from the bedroom. Much more likely is that the killer hid the kitchen phone saying it was broken (though it was tested and worked perfectly) and either brought the master bedroom phone there personally earlier in the day or made sure someone else did it. It was testified to that when the kitchen phone had problems the bedroom phone was substituted. They considered it more important to have phones in the office and kitchen than the bedroom so the bedroom phone was the one that was usually moved. The killer either moved it personally or hid the kitchen phone saying it was broken and suggested someone else move the bedroom phone.
This indicates 2 things. 1) that the killings were premeditated not a spur of the moment thing and 2) the killer did not want the victims to call someone and reveal his/her identity to anyone because it would result in the killer being caught. The killer hoped police would not find out his/her identity and planned to escape the scene and hoped to escape responsibility.
None of this is consistent with what Sheila allegedly was doing. It is not claimed that Sheila planned the murders in advance and came up with a scheme to blame someone else, escape responsibility and start a new life without her parents and children. This is not claimed because it makes no sense and no one can come up with any reason that she would do such or how she could expect to escape liability. The allegation is that she had a crazy episode and where she decided to kill everyone including herself. If she were in a crazy frenzy and this had not been preplanned then she certainly would not take precautions to remove the phone. Even if she planned to kill herself then commit suicide in advance there still would be no reason to move the phone. Even if her parents managed to make a call identifying her as shooting them so what? By the time anyone could arrive everyone would be dead including her. There is no way anyone could respond fast enough to prevent her from killing everyone. So the phone doesn't matter at all. The phone only matters if a killer intends to flee the scene and escape responsibility. This does indeed suggest that Jeremy was the killer not Sheila. His frame would not work if Nevill or June called to say he was shooting them. If they called to announce Sheila was shooting them though it would not accomplish anything. Indeed Nevill allegedly called and identified their killer yet everyone in the house died anyway.
II. It makes little sense to rush to the phone if someone is actively shooting you unless you can lock a door and have some time to safely dial. To stop, pick up the phone and dial you open yourself up to a clear shot. Stationary targets are much easier to hit. Unless his killer was out of bullets so paused shooting or was a good distance behind Nevill it makes little sense to use the phone. The lack of blood on the phone means Nevill was stopped before he reached it.
Someone posted that the doors usually were locked from the inside with the key left in. This suggests it was the old style lever locks (what we is the US typically call skeleton key locks). This could explain why Nevill did not run out the door. If indeed the doors usually had the keys inside the lock then the killer would have taken the keys and hid them so that no one could escape easily. Many families keep keys in the kitchen maybe he found the front door locked with no key in the lock so could not unlock it and that is why he ran to the kitchen. His killer cannot have been too far behind that Nevill was unable to reach the phone if he was trying to reach it. Unless Nevill knew the gun was empty I think he had a different motive than the reach the phone.
III. The lack of blood on the phone makes it unlikely the phone had been in the bedroom for Nevill to try to use. If he did run down to try to use it probably it was because the bedroom phone was missing. That still required running past his killer which would be safer to accomplish if you wrestle the gun away as opposed to just running by. That is why I think that the gun might have been empty and he might have been chasing his killer.
What swings it for me is that assuming the call from Nevill to Jeremy did happen then why, if Jeremy thought his family's lives were in danger would he call Julie first, waste time looking for the local police station number rather than dial 999, and finally drive to the farm at a snail's pace? All of this behaviour clearly indicates he was in no hurry to get there because he knew what was there-because there was no call from Nevill.
I still wonder if Nevill were actually trying to reach the phone when he ran into the kitchen, I am not completely convinced he was. BUT the account from Jeremy is that he not only was running to the phone but he reached it, dialed Jeremy and told him that Sheila grabbed a gun, was running around with it in a crazy fit and he was scared she was going to use it so come over right away to help disarm her.
I have a host of problems with the account and Jeremy’s supposed reactions.
The killer started shooting upstairs. June was shot enough times to disable her and Nevill had already been shot at least 4 times by the time he could have reached the phone. One of these bullets had shot off his lip and another shattered his teeth, jaw and damaged his voicebox to the point he would be unable to speak in any fashion that could be understood.
Why was there no blood on the phone if Nevill had actually picked it up and dialed it?
Even if he got through to Jeremy how could he communicate with Jeremy given the damage to his mouth and voicebox?
Even if by some miracle he were able to talk, why would he phone Jeremy and ask Jeremy to come over? He and his wife had been shot, they needed medical attention what could Jeremy do for them? Even if he felt to weak to disarm Sheila himself so decided to ask Jeremy to come help why wouldn’t he tell Jeremy that they had been shot and to call an ambulance then come over.? It makes no sense to fail to indicate they had been shot and in need of medical attention. At best Nevill would have calle dhis son because his son were closer than police so would arrive sooner but he still at minimum would have wanted an ambulance even if not police to come.
The fact Jeremy called Julie is suspicious period. Calling her before police is even more suspicious but just the fact he called her at all makes no sense. This was the middle of the night why would he feel the need to wake her and her roommates up just to tell her that his parents called to say Sheila was in a crazy frenzy running around with a gun but they the phonecall was cut off so he was not sure what happened? What could she do? Absolutely nothing. He could not have been calling to be consoled because he wasn’t sure what if anything had happened. For all he knew nothing happened. He could have gone over and found out nothing was wrong. Wouldn’t a rational person find out what happened and if bad news and needing a shoulder to cry on to call at that point? If it were the middle of the day not the middle of the night ok maybe then it might make sense for him to gossip and say he is heading to his parents with police to check things out because there might be trouble. To say such at night and worry her for potentially nothing makes no sense. Some emotional basket case might fear the worst and call his girlfriend to cry but he was far from a basket case and showed little sign of concern.
He did not run over right away to see what was up. He was only 3 minutes away but he decided not to go check it out. Not even to go recon the outside of the house and try to spy or listen. He decided he would make police go with him but he did not call police right away. He didn’t even dial 999 he displayed no sense of urgency whatsoever. Nor did he show any sense of urgency when he finally got to the scene. He didn’t get close to the house to look in the windows. He left it up to police. When police said they were not going in did he press them to go in? Did he say if they don’t go in then he will? Nope for more than 3.5 hours he hung out with cops chatting calmly about cars and guy stuff and in fact he even lied to police to make them scared to go in. He told them Sheila had fired and was proficient with all the guns in the house. Given this complete lack of urgency on his part why would he feel any need to wake his girlfriend to tell her something might have happened? There is only one explanation about why he called. He knew they were dead when he made the call and was excited in a good way, not upset. He was so excited he could not contain himself and needed to tell somebody. That is the only rational explanation for his call and that is the purpose for the call according to Julie. Her account is much more credible than his.
The fact he wanted police to pick him up and then when they refused to wait for them to go there first then go also makes no sense. Why was he so desperate for police to see that he arrived after them? The only explanation was tha tit was an act to try to get cops to think he had nothing to do with it because he wasn’t even on the scene till after they arrived. It was rather worthless but shows how his mind was working.
Someone in his place either would have:
1) taken the 3 minute drive to check things out and then called police if necessary. At bare minimum to spy outside if not actually enter, or
2) called police then taken the 3 minute drive and at minimum tried to listen and look in the windows while waiting for police, some even would have entered the house
3) After police arrived and said they were waiting not going in, who would wait? You would either go in without police or press the police to go inside to make sure no one is hurt and in need of medical attention.
Jeremy's actions make no sense. When you factor in everything else it is easy to see he committed the murders.
