Apparently it was the rifle with the smashed " handle" that was found near Sheila. We've heard very little about the smashed one ? Was it ever examined,along with the piece that came off it ?
We have heard a lot about it, it is the only rifle in the case there were no others. The only other rifle in the house was just a gun that used CO2 to fire metal pellets not a real riflearm. The only other firearms were shotguns.
They fingerprinted the murder weapon, they tested the blood stains on it finding they were human blood stains, they searched the barrel to see if it had any blood in it, which it didn't so it could not have been used for any contact shots to any of the victims without the moderator attached, and they looked at the damage to the stock including taking the stock off and looking inside to the extent possible since it has a cavity. The stock ha several stress fractures running from the front towards the back. These fractures were caused by the stock being squeezed at both ends. The piece that broke off also browke off from the same sort of pressure. The break ran laterally. The pressure that caused such was obviously someone forcing the butt of the rifle into something. You had force on one side and it was kitting something hard on the other.
Nevill's skull had wounds that were caused by the butt of the rifle striking it. His face as well and arms though his face in addition could have been struck by a fist as well not exclusively the rifle. I sincerely doubt bashing the nose and face with the rifle would be able to cause the damage in question to the butt. Bashing the skull is much more likely to cause such.
The rifle had one print that belonged to Sheila, one that belonged to Jeremy and several partials that could not be matched to anyone.
They never typed the blood on the weapon they just did a test to determine if it was human blood. No doubt most if not all the blood on it was Nevill's. The stains on the stock and rear of the weapon were determined to be consistent with medium velocity spatter. Someone bleeding was being stuck with the stock and the blood was spashing onto the rifle. The only one with wounds indicating he was being struck with the rifle was Nevill so obviously the blood had to be his so a test of blood type wasn't necessary.
That pretty much covers everything about the rifle physically. The only thing to add is that the 25 casings were tied as being fired by the murder weapon thus proving it was the weapon that fired such 25 rounds. To prove that required test firing bullets and comparing the the extraction marks and firing pin impressions on the samples to the 25 used in the murder. So we know a different wepaon was not used.
You suggested the other day the gun on Sheila wasn't the actual murder wepaon. If that were the case it would prove even more strongly that someone else killed her because she never stood up after being shot and certainly can't have died then brought the gun to a different room. The gun on her was the murder weapon.
