The brother could not remember what he'd done that evening - it was a perfectly ordinary weekday evening until midnight, when Corinne found out that Jodi had been found dead, and some time after that before Shane was informed.
In his initial statement, he said he presumed he had come home from work as normal, at around 3.30pm. It was evidence from his phone and another witness which drew attention to the fact that this part of his statement was incorrect. No negative inference was drawn from this - it was totally accepted that he had simply forgotten that he had stopped off at a friend's house on his way home from work that evening. It is that evidence which places him as arriving home at around 4.50pm, and other phone evidence which shows his arrangement to go out later that evening.
He discussed the evening with his mother, who reminded him that the only thing that might have made the evening stand out in his memory was that that was the night his dinner had been slightly burned. He returned voluntarily to the police to add this information to his statement.
Now, the two boys on the moped, who were Jodi's cousins, and were on the path, and their bike was at the V break without them at 5.15pm, took 5 days to come forward. They did not volunteer the information that they had been on the path at any point until a police appeal on Saturday 5th July, complete with description, was broadcast. When they did contact the police, following this broadcast, they both gave a different time - they said they were on the path about an hour earlier. When asked why they had not come forward sooner, one of them said Jodi's grandmother had told him not to go to the police, because they were on the path "too early."
The main point about these two, however, is that they said in evidence that they had spent the 5 days "talking about everything" before "realising they might have been on the path at the time Jodi was killed." there are a few points to this:
(1) They must have known from day 2 of the investigation that they were on the path at the time in question - police were appealing for anyone who had been in the vicinity of the path between 5pm and 10pm that evening.
(2) After realising this, why did they then lie to the police, and give a different time instead? Why did one of them lie to Jodi's grandmother about the time he was on the path. Was it a lie or a mistake? Well, given that one of them had an appointment, and knew the time of that appointment, and the other picked him up after that appointment, in order for the time given to have been a "mistake," both would have had to have suffered total amnesia for these events!
(3) Why is it "suspicious" that Luke's brother made a mistake about the period around 5pm that evening, discovered his mistake when speaking to his mother (a mistake which had already been verified by other evidence, incidentally) and going straight back to the police to correct it, when it is not considered suspicious that two of Jodi's cousins were discussing "everything" for 5 days, failed to come forward until they were forced to do so, and then lied about their whereabouts and whenabouts?
Why is it not suspicious that they "could not remember" where they were or what they were doing while their bike was propped against the V break, behind which Jodi's body was found, at 5.15pm, the claimed time of death?
Shane may have forgotten what he had for dinner, but there was no suggestion that he was anywhere near the murder scene at the claimed time of the murder. Yet there is direct, provable evidence, (including their own admission) that these two were right at the spot, at exactly the time the police claimed Jodi was murdered, but it's not in any way suspcious that they could not account for their movements, and chose, instead, to lie about them?
And, for clarity, Shane did not say Luke was not at home, he said he could not remember. He also said, in evidence, that his treatment at the hands of the police had been so hostile and aggressive that he was no longer sure of anything relating to that evening. Having seen the various interrogations, etc, I am not at all surprised. In one "interview," the police officer says repeatedly, "I'm not accepting I don't know, I'm not accepting I can't remember, that's just not good enough. You'll give me an answer," When he protests that he can't answer definitively, and that the police officer is confusing him (by asking several questions at once without waiting for a response, then demanding an answer to somethng entirely different) he is told, "Picture this in your head... can you see this, I'm asking you to picture this..." (the officer describes a particular scene)...
Would D FENS apply the same criticisms to Jodi's brother who is attributed as having told police officers that the family, Jodi included, sat down and had dinner at the table together before Jodi left, when no such thing took place?
