The Broken Window

[kensei]

The implication seems to be made that perhaps the window was not broken during a fight at all, but broken on purpose to provide access to the room after the key was lost. This begs the question- would McCarthy have charged an arm and a leg to provide a new key if they'd just told him right away that they'd lost theirs'?

[claire]

The timing is interesting, isn't it? On the one hand, we have an account that says that the window was broken on 30 October, the night that Barnett supposedly walked out. On the other, we have him (don't we?) saying that the key was lost some time before. It has to be a matter of some coincidence that they lost the key, had to leave the room unsecured, and then, fighting on the night Barnett moved out, they managed to break the window in just such a way as to permit access to the door lock.

There are so many other plausible scenarios to explain the 'coincidence' than coincidence itself, that it does make me wonder (although McCarthy's statement, that Phil refers to, hints that those windows were broken before 30/X, so perhaps the stated date is wrong.

I'm less baffled by the mechanics of getting access to the lock from the window. I think it's quite possible, albeit a little risky. I just get snagged up on the idea that the key had been lost for a while but the window, that supposedly offered the only means of getting into a room that one had decided to lock, was accidentally and conveniently broken at some other point. That said, squinty eyes at the exterior photo of the room hint that the two window-panes closest the corner were almost smashed out.

[Fisherman]

Phil C:

"...They lived comfortably together but once broke the two windows.."

That probably refers to the fact that there were two broken panes in the window closest to the door, I believe - not that both of the windows were broken per se.

This is what Dr Phillips said: 'I looked through the lower of the broken panes and satisfied myself that the mutilated corpse lying on the bed was not in need of any immediate attention from me'.

The best,
Fisherman

[Phil Carter]

Time

Hello Chava, packers Stem,

The point I wonder about is the length of time the window was said to be broken, and the length of time the key was said to be missing. If she never attempted to open the door after the window was broken by this method, because as you rightly say, she'd risk cutting an artery every time, it would depend on how long the window had been in that state.

Re windows, "Sourcebook" quotes John McCarthy at the inquest saying the following..

"...They lived comfortably together but once broke the two windows.."

(in reference to Kelly and Barnett's cohabitation)

best wishes

Phil

[packers stem]

Hi Chava
Been wondering this myself.She would almost certainly have had to go in to shoulder length -if it was possible at all.
Common sense would tell you to remove the remaining pieces of glass from that particular pane, if this was to be used as the method of entry, to prevent serious injury(drunk in the dark!!).
Not to mention demonstrating to every client how to gain access to her room.
What type of clothing would she have had to wear to enable her to get her shoulder into that crack.
None of this seems likely to me.
Much more likely it was just another porkie told to Barnett(or BY Barnett) and that the key was never lost.

Is this the Dr.Nemo thread you refer to?

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=636&page=8

[Chava]

This is courtesy of a sharp-eyed person called Dr Nemo on another thread.

Has anyone ever checked the veracity of that 'she leaned through the window to lock the door' story? Because he's right to question it. When you come to think about it, it doesn't make all that much sense. She would have risked ripping an artery every time she did it. And as he points out, that broken pane is a long way from where the door is. Can anyone post pix either to support her doing it or to prove she couldn't have?

And if it really wasn't possible, why did that story go around?