Bugger "Occam's Razor" that clear set of circumstances running in line. Let's go all out here into Peter Pan land. Marvellous stuff. Now why on earth can your imagination not reach into the realms of LM being the actual killer?
How's about. Girl texted boyfriend and said, hey my punishment has been lifted, you want to meet earlier. 'sure, where and when' Get you at out usual place, where the initials are carved into the tree, I'll fire you a text when I'm leaving the house, 'cool, see you soon'.
All ready for the off and her mother holds her back a few minutes, boy is waiting just inside the woodland on her, where is she? Calls the speaking clock to check the time, walks out of the woodland into the lane and there she is. Boy is not happy, he does not like to be kept waiting. Palms out turned beckoning her to him, get a shifty on here will ya! She goes to him and they walk down through the woodland, arguing having a smoke? Get off the beaten track and he violently attacks her. That red mist over takes. Deed done and he becomes icily calm. That opportunity he had been fantasizing about is now reality --------------
Sadly for him and fortunately for the safety of others, several wheels are firmly set in motion. Wing it as best he can, gets rid of incriminating forensic evidence and puts alibi in place.
But you are correct. Much better to apply all and everything around there being no forensic evidence, invent multiple scenarios. A killer not caught. Just not the boy who may have been that very killer, not caught through lack of evidence. If he had not been clocked by others, If there had been a united front and strength to the alibi.
I understand your position entirely. Given that LM has protested innocence from the get go I believe it is reasonable to look for alternative narratives which might explain what happened. We have a case where all the evidence is circumstantial and it is cases like this which can lead to a MOJ. Given the media interest surrounding the case and the obvious anguish of JJ's family and the public at large he was virtually convicted before he set foot in a courtroom.
Whilst I accept that children can murder (given the recent case of the trans killed in the park by two teenagers) and including the earlier Bulger case, I cannot see a 14 year old commit a murder with the characteristics displayed in this case as a solo effort.
To me the killer would need to be deranged and capable of committing the act with malice aforethought complete with a well constructed alibi. Luke has displayed no earlier behaviours which point to anything other than a wayward teenager. He has no record of nasty threatening incidents or verbalisation of a manic nature beyond that which would mark him out as a dangerous individual. True he may have shown interest in some darker aspects of life but there is no earlier evidence to suggest this was anything but normal teenage banter.
Even the pathologist does not believe he did it.
Also there is other unidentified male DNA
I could have been more accepting of him as the guilty partner if she had been stabbed a few times but the MO in this case is well beyond the normal angry boy.
I am not sure why the police thought a 14 year old could plan and execute such a murder and did not examine whether an unknown third party may have been involved.
IS IT WORTH A CHECK
Where EXACTLY was Danilo Restivo on the evening of 30/06/03?
Similarities between the Heather Barnett murder (12/11/2002) and that of Jodie Jones (30/06/2003).
1 Head wounds; both had blunt force injuries to the back of the head with no weapon found, though a hammer was attributed in HB’s case. However the pathologist in the Jones case said it could also have been made by forcing her head against something hard like a wall.
2 Neck wounds; both suffered massive mutilation injuries with a bladed weapon to the neck area almost severing the head.
3 Breast area; both had been mutilated in this area. Barnett’s were fully removed. Jones’s left breast had been attacked.
4 Both crime scenes had evidence of a struggle before death.
5 Clothes; both victims had their clothes cut off.
6 Elements of symmetry/quirkiness; it is said that HB’s incised breasts were placed either side of her head. Jodie’s brassiere cups were placed one inside the other.
7 Hair; HB had some of her hair placed by one hand with the hair of another woman next to the other. Jodie had some of her hair pulled out and some of her hair was around her fingers. The uncovered body overnight with rain may be a factor either as a cause or adjuster of volume or positioning. It seems to me from pictures that all three women had auburn hair.
Danilo Restivo tied up his first victim the Italian Alisa Claps and Jodie was tied up. He was also suspected of tying up two children and cutting one with a knife. Settled out of court in Italy when he was younger.
Alisa Claps only had her own hair by the body.
The attack on Jodie is more severe but with some deranged killers the violence escalates a bit each time.
Restivo's conviction yesterday for Heather Barnett's murder brings to a close an extraordinary story, but many mysteries remain. Some observers are convinced that a compulsive, psychotic killer such as Restivo must have commited more murders between 1993 and 2002. Over the years he has been linked to many other deaths, particularly to a series of brutal murders in southern France and Spain. In September 1997 a young French-Algerian woman from Perpignan, Moktharia Chaib, was stabbed and her breasts, as well as other body parts, removed. Marie Hélène Gonzalez had, in 1998, been brutally mutilated, having disappeared in Perpignan. In 1999, in Puerto de Alcuida, Majorca, a British woman called Yvonne O'Brien was stabbed 40 times and one of her breasts was removed. On Easter Day 2003 a South Korean woman adopted by an Italian family, Erika Ansermin, disappeared. Her body has never been found but a photograph of her, downloaded from an Italian news channel, was found on Restivo's computer.