Thanks Mike. Why do you think Sheila chose to comminicate with the police by barking like a dog ?
I think the psychological pressure that was trapped within exploded with an insessent desire to bark, howl and whine like a dog, due to her inability to show any interest in her boys, or housework, and even her own personal heigiene, and the fact that she must have been made to feel like a dog, ordered about, here, there, and everywhere by her parents! If what Jeremy told us was true, for example, that her parents were telling Sheila that she needed help in bringing up the two children, there was talk of getting social services to help her, and even the possibility of arranging foster parents, as well as a suggestion that a short Holliday in a Bournemouth rest home would do her the world of good! Even on the last evening on this earth, she was summoned to the house phone by her mother at about 10.00am to speak with Pamela Boutflour!
I think Sheila's attitude at the time of this phone call just about summed up how fed up she had become at being ordered a round like a dog 'come and speak to Aunty Pamela' her mother beckoned..
Sheila's defiant mood started to shine through at such a late hour, since, according to Pamela Boutflours version of the events, Sheila hardly spoke a word throughout the entire conversation, other than the odd, 'yes', or 'no'. And at the death, apparently simply handed the telephones handset over to her mother without even saying 'goodnight, aunty Pam', as she was normally accustomed to saying!
The tell tale signs were all there that evening to suggest that things were going to come to a head!
For example, long before Pamela Boutflours call to June and Sheila that evening, June Bamber had missed her regular Tuesday evening Bible class! It was an important religious festive that day (6th August) 'THE TRANSFIGURATION OF GOD'. No-one has ever stopped to wonder, why June did not attend her regular Bible class meeting?
But...
There were things which were afoot in the Bamber household, that required that Sheila was not left alone inside the farmhouse in the state of mind she had been in, she had certainly been behaving oddly ever since she arrived at the farmhouse with her two children for a break from her normal routine! There had been the journey to the farmhouse in the car with Colin and the children, Sheila sat in complete silence throughout the entire journey! Of course, this type of silent treatment surfaced again during the phone call episode spoken about! But, there were two other events worthy of note, one was the fact that Sheila had verbally attacked an Electricity Board Officer who had attended at the farmhouse to take a meter reading, only for him to be confronted by a screaming, whaling, blabbering Sheila, who swore constantly at him, ordering him off her farm! Apparently this official became very frightened, and feared for his safety, the type of situation he normally encountered by family dogs! However, June stepped in to save the day, explaining to the official that he would have to excuse Sheila because she hadn't been taking her medication!
Well, of course, this was a turn up for the book, because by all accounts, it wasn't that Sheila had'nt been taking her medication, so much as it had been halved by her GP - Sheila was obviously effected by withdrawal symptoms related to that (Haloperidol) drug! What no-one talks about is the black eye that June Bamber got during that occasion of preventing Sheila from the possibility of physically attacking the official in question! That black eye and the Bamber Parents concern for Sheila's and the grandchildren well being, was the chief reason why June Bamber didn't attend her regular Bible class that Tuesday night! There were guns laid about in the farmhouse, and thousands of rounds of ammunition for a variety of different weapons! The parents must have felt that June had to miss her Bible class, therefore, for a number of different reasons, aforementioned!
It must have been somewhat traumatising for Sheila, to listen or to overhear her mother telling Pamela Boutflour that Sheila had gone upstairs to bed, and that she was going to bring Sheila and the boys around to Pam's for tea on the following day, so that Pam could have a look at Sheila, who according to June, was acting 'oddly'...
Alarm bells should have started to ring in June's mind regarding Sheila's odd behaviour as accounted by her to her sister during that last telephone call!
What exactly did June Bamber mean, by saying that Sheila was behaving oddly?
Well, believe it or not...
Sheila had been refusing to speak in a satisfactory way to either of her parents since she arrived at the farm on that last occasion! She hadn't spoken even to Jeremy! In fact, although June and Sheila were seen out and about in the local village shops with the children accompanying them, Sheila never spoke a word! Even on that last Tuesday afternoon, when Sheila and one of her boys and 'Crispy' the shih Tzu, had taken Jeremy some sandwiches to the field where Jeremy was busy harvesting, Sheila didn't speak - she just handed over the sandwiches and walked off.
The really odd thing what June Bamber had noticed was that a part from the abusive outburst involving the meter man, that Sheila had started to switch off communicating with other fellow human beings, not just strangers, but close members of her immediate family! June must have also noticed that whenever Sheila was in the presence of 'Crispy', how Sheila became somewhat transformed, as if she was in her own little world, and the oddest thing ever, was that Sheila had started to Mimicking the whimpering and whinings, and the barking made by Crispy! At first, Sheila only responded after 'Crispy' had made one of these sounds, so that in affect, if 'Crispy' whimpered, Sheila would make the exact same whimpering sound! If 'Crispy' whined, Sheila would then whine! If 'Crispy' barked or howled, Sheila would Mimicking every sound! However, June had noticed on that last Tuesday she would spend alive on this earth, that Sheila had started to instigate 'Crispy', to whimper, whine, bark or to howl - and the truly odd thing was, June noticed, was that 'Crispy' was reacting spontaneously to the noises Sheila was making, it was like Sheila and 'Crispy' were communicating with eachother using dog language!
That was what June Bamber was talking about, when she told her sister Pamela on the telephone that Tuesday night 'I want you to have a look at her, because she is behaving oddly!
