Sheila re loading. Twice.

[Passer-by]

The rifle and magazine were empty when examined/made safe by first police responders.

I'm really sorry at being crap at posting to relevant links, but I'm sure you super-sleuths know where to find them - but in the process of making the gun safe didn't one policeman, in gloves, pick up the gun, make it safe and then hand it to another policeman who later admitted he was not wearing gloves?  Aren't both those actions likely to have obliterated existing prints?  And JB's prints should legitimately be all over it anyway as it was effectively his gun - so he would have no need to wear gloves.  Why would Sheila have a print on there though?  If JC did an Agatha Christie Thang and press her fingers on the gun to leave incriminating fingerprints, there would have been more than 1.

[Holly Goodhead]

I'm really sorry at being crap at posting to relevant links, but I'm sure you super-sleuths know where to find them - but in the process of making the gun safe didn't one policeman, in gloves, pick up the gun, make it safe and then hand it to another policeman who later admitted he was not wearing gloves?  Aren't both those actions likely to have obliterated existing prints?  And JB's prints should legitimately be all over it anyway as it was effectively his gun - so he would have no need to wear gloves.  Why would Sheila have a print on there though?  If JC did an Agatha Christie Thang and press her fingers on the gun to leave incriminating fingerprints, there would have been more than 1.

I think it's a misconception that if one handles any object ungloved that fingerprints are deposited.  Apparently not so.  On some surfaces they are notoriously difficult to lift for a variety of reasons texture being one of them.  The silencer didn't contain any fingerprints despite all it's handling by the relatives.

http://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/2013/10/27/why-we-dont-find-fingerprints-on-firearms/

http://www.evidencemagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/factoid4.htm

[Holly Goodhead]

I think it's a misconception that if one handles any object ungloved that fingerprints are deposited.  Apparently not so.  On some surfaces they are notoriously difficult to lift for a variety of reasons texture being one of them.  The silencer didn't contain any fingerprints despite all it's handling by the relatives.

http://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/2013/10/27/why-we-dont-find-fingerprints-on-firearms/

http://www.evidencemagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/factoid4.htm

Another reason fingerprints might be difficult to lift is due to surface oils.  Much has been made of the bullets used being covered in a waxy substance.  Also gun oil, GSR, lead etc. 

No offence to the experts who dealt with the case to the best of their ability but personally I think a multi-disciplinary approach by US experts would have the case sewn up one way or another in just a few weeks. I'm not a huge fan of the US but I accept they are far more knowledgable and experienced in gun crime due to the widespread use of firearms.  They are also streets ahead in the areas of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. 

[Passer-by]

I'm inclined to agree.

So what is all this oil that's meant to be on her clothes?  I find that hard to believe:  I only went to a shooting range a few times (had a boyfriend who did small bore rifle shooting at competitions). I don't remember them being oily?  Has anyone got any experience, photos, reference points? 

And reiterating, that all family annihilators plan their murders, so SC could have planned and watched carefully when someone else was loading the gun in the months running up to that day.

[Myster]

I'm inclined to agree.

So what is all this oil that's meant to be on her clothes?  I find that hard to believe:  I only went to a shooting range a few times (had a boyfriend who did small bore rifle shooting at competitions). I don't remember them being oily?  Has anyone got any experience, photos, reference points? 

And reiterating, that all family annihilators plan their murders, so SC could have planned and watched carefully when someone else was loading the gun in the months running up to that day.

I don't think Sheila had the guile or foresight to plan any murders. According to her friend of several years, Tora Tomkinson, she had to be encouraged and supported to even begin decorating her Morshead Mansions flat.

[Anna]

I'm inclined to agree.

So what is all this oil that's meant to be on her clothes?  I find that hard to believe:  I only went to a shooting range a few times (had a boyfriend who did small bore rifle shooting at competitions). I don't remember them being oily?  Has anyone got any experience, photos, reference points? 

And reiterating, that all family annihilators plan their murders, so SC could have planned and watched carefully when someone else was loading the gun in the months running up to that day.

It was lead residue, which was IIRC not found on her nightdress


The amount of lead residue emitted from a gun can vary slightly from shot to shot. Fouling in the barrel from previous shots can slightly increase the amount of lead residue emitted from one shot to the next.

As described above, gunshot residue can be deposited on articles of clothing when in close proximity to a discharged firearm. But will it stay there? In most cases the answer is yes.

http://www.firearmsid.com/a_distancegsr.htm

[Passer-by]

It was lead residue, which was IIRC not found on her nightdress


The amount of lead residue emitted from a gun can vary slightly from shot to shot. Fouling in the barrel from previous shots can slightly increase the amount of lead residue emitted from one shot to the next.

As described above, gunshot residue can be deposited on articles of clothing when in close proximity to a discharged firearm. But will it stay there? In most cases the answer is yes.

http://www.firearmsid.com/a_distancegsr.htm

Clothes in the bucket because marked by menstruation, hands cleansed by washing/rubbing clothes together, clean nighty to go to Heaven?

[Holly Goodhead]

There are lots of videos at the start of this thread showing women loading various firearms and firing several rounds.  All are well turned out and they don't appear to have any noticeable staining to their clothes or rubbing their hands as they might if they felt dirty and/or sticky.  In fact one woman is dressed in white. 

[Passer-by]

Thanks Holly:  I shall hunt through.

Surely if we are expecting spatter on the murderer, there was a fair bit around the house, yet I gather little redecoration was required?

I find it perplexing that he didn't receive all his shots to the head in the kitchen:  they sound seriously debilitating and certainly he sounds far too seriously injured for much of a struggle - hitting him sounds like (unfortunate phrase) over-kill and possibly hate-motivated - he may not even have been moving when it happened.

[Passer-by]

Some interesting info about gun suicides - especially the double-shot finger-spasm causing more shots even after death - but also how someone can continue to function even after receiving a shot to the head.

http://dmmoyle.com/simeans.htm