It’s very possible he did shower in his house after an initial clean-up at the small rivers in the woodland behind the gate he was spotted at acting suspiciously by LF & RW at approx 1740 hrs. Some people on this forum find the notion of LM cleaning at a small river to be ridiculous. Why? LM was the Davie Crocket type and loved outdoor activites such as cadets, camping, hunting, knives, fishing, motorcycles and horse-riding, and plus he was forensically aware (said the police tried to get him back over that V gap so his dna would be there and he knew that they didn’t have his dna as it was only a partial profile). This lad was an adult in everything but age; was well mature beyond his years and his mum let him do as he pleased (smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol in the house and allowed to have girls stay overnight and have underage sex) and she indulged him and was used to getting his own way (CM even bought him another knife from a catalogue in dec ‘03). LM didn’t like to be told no (and I’ve a strong hunch that not liking not getting his own way resulted in that poor girl being brutally murdered in that coppice behind the wall at Roan’s dyke path after she confronted him).
As for LM being able to get his hair, hands & nails dirty again after showering . . . are you being serious? LM met up with 3 other lads at the abbey at 1930 hrs and was escorted to Dalkeith police station just after 12 midnight on 01.07.03. That’s almost 5 hours to get dirty again. During those 5 hours, he was mucking around woodland on a dull, wet and overcast night, smoking joints, playing football, playing on a tarzan swing near his house and basically boys were being boys. Was easily able to get dirty again. LM phoned and used David High specifically and purposely to bolster his alibi and so he could get dirty again (but, in court, these boys testified that he looked cleaner than normal when he first met them at 1930). LM was intelligent, devious, manipulative and calculating, evidently able to think quickly on his feet.