You know what Steve? I REALLY resent being told that I make assumptions, especially by you. Unlike your own, my posts are peppered with "perhaps" "if" "possibly".
I feel that you may not have read my post thoroughly. What I suggested was, having gone to bed, Nevill heard Sheila talking as she went downstairs so he followed her to do what he's done on numerous other occasions, talk to her and calm her. Why, at that point, would he have believed there was any danger. It didn't require June to go downstairs with him, indeed, her presence MAY not have helped. MAYBE he did try to calm her. Maybe it was at this point that she spied the gun and took it upstairs and maybe it was at that point that Nevill phoned Jeremy.
April
It’s not possible to know exactly what happened, but it’s appropriate to consider plausible alternatives. The reason that Steve has taken offence is that you have just presented him with a scenario which he can’t really argue against, since regardless of whether or not it’s factual it is obviously quite plausible.
Logic is clearly not his strong point. Suggest what you think probably happened and Steve will accuse you of being dogmatic and probably misrepresent what you have said into the bargain.
My view as to the most likely scenario is basically the same as yours. I think that Nevill went downstairs to see what was up with Sheila. At some point, maybe when Nevill’s back is turned, Sheila picks up the gun and he sees her go upstairs with it without him being able to stop her. At that stage he would have feared for Sheila’s own safety and would hardly have predicted that she would shoot other family members.
The notion that it’s obvious that he wouldn’t have phoned Jeremy has nothing in particular to support it. That’s why the guilters must have it that we think that Nevill phoned Jeremy after he had been shot several times. That would make it seem far less likely. And it allows them to use the “no blood on the phone” argument and to keep repeating it ad nauseam.
Of course, if he made the call before he was shot, there is no reason why there should be blood on the phone. And, if he made it before Sheila had fired the gun, he might well have not realised that the other family members were in danger.
Steve must have it that the Jeremy supporters think that Sheila cut short Nevill’s call with “a well manicured fingernail” . What a load of rubbish!
What probably happened is that that during his call to Jeremy, he hears something going on upstairs-maybe the sound of the gun being fired, so he thinks that he should call the police and ends the call to Jeremy himself. Nothing ridiculous about that!
Having spoken to the police, he feels he must do something right away and goes upstairs to confront Sheila and to try to take the gun from her. Sheila shoots him and he retreats downstairs and she comes after him. The argument that he would have been too big for Sheila to overpower seems very stupid if it is remembered that he would have already have been shot several times by then.
One strong indication that it was actually Nevill who terminated the call to Jeremy is that when Jeremy called back, he got the engaged tone. Jeremy had no reason to make that up and the timing of it fits in perfectly with the different times of two different calls to the police. When Jeremy phoned back, Nevill was talking to the police.
Random mistakes rarely produce a logically consistent narrative. If we merely take the original times given for the phone calls as correct-as an experiment-then the parts fit together perfectly. And, remember, Jeremy originally said that he phoned Julie Mugford before he phoned the police.
03:26 am Nevill Bamber phones the police.
03:30 Jeremy phones Julie Mugford, having just heard the engaged tone at the farm.
03:36 Jeremy phones the police, having taken a few minutes to find the number.
Jeremy says he heard the engaged tone just exactly when he should have heard it, if the original times given are correct. Ignoring big coincidences is a sign of small intelligence.
