The Silent Killer Fallacy: why did Jeremy shoot June first?

[Erik Narramore]

Well was June shot with the silencer on the rifle or not?  If that was the case, then I'm just wondering why Nevill stirred.  It must be that June was already awake when Jeremy entered the main bedroom.  The idea being that Jeremy therefore has to shoot June first instead of Nevill, and June is perhaps the one who wakes Nevill while she is being shot, either by noise or touch or both.  The whole thing then goes pear-shaped.  Nevill is awaken and moves, resulting in shots to his face rather than upper head.

There is also a possible explanation for Jeremy shooting June multiple times, which is simply that she is already awake, and although she is still in bed, she is moving around and this could have put Jeremy off his stride.

Jeremy's assumptions would have been:

- silencer, so no noise;

- parents in bed, so shoot them quickly in the vital areas;

- kill twins quickly (maybe this was before parents, doesn't matter either way for present purposes);

- grabs hold of Sheila or Sheila is already moving around, either way he pins her down and kills her quickly, then stages the scene.

This basic plan goes wrong when June hears somebody creeping around.  Robert Boutflour, Jnr. did say that June had sleep problems.  Jeremy is surprised to find her awake, and this puts him off.

On the other hand, the relatives may have thought all this through in the same way we have and this may explain Robert Boutflour, Jnr.'s claim about June's sleep problems.

[Erik Narramore]

I'm well aware that a silencer does not render a gun report silent. I'm familiar with firearms myself and my personal view is that even with the silencer, there would have been a loud report due to the acoustics inside the house. 

However, we must remember that Jeremy - if guilty - may not have anticipated this and he would not have had an opportunity to test the silencer's effect in different environments.  The guilt camp do have a point in the narrow sense that Jeremy's assumption may have been that the use of a silencer would mean a silent massacre, and if that assumption was wrong, that may explain the crime scene.  Equally, if that assumption was right (which is my contrived premise here), that does not change the position because we can still explain the crime scene by arguing that June woke for some reason and sounded the alarm for Nevill.