Another potential suspect
I wrote a brief overview of the case
here. Brandon's former friend Mike, the one who spoke falsely about Brandon's MySpace page, is another obvious person of interest. His phony evidence was part of the indictment. And if Brandon's supposed lying formed a basis for the indictment, then why one look at Mike's lies in the same light? He did other things, such as sending Brandon text messages that would give a reasonable person cause for concern. Charla had attempted suicide at one point in her life, and there were other aspects of her behavior that raise questions. One has to wonder how thoroughly and competently they were investigated.
The podcast did not do an ideal job of explaining the timeline from Brandon's point of view. For one thing, he was seen by a neighbor while at the Heath house. For another, the author of the book
Railroaded described the police as asking Brandon leading questions about the timings. I listened to the interview, and I broadly agree, although it was not as blatant as I was expecting. Thirdly, one of Brandon's shirts (I am not sure whether it was the same one he wore at dinner with his parents) had a semen stain, suggesting that he might have been masturbating during his time at the Heath house that evening.
As I reviewed the case I was struck by the mountain of evidence that the police did not collect. The police noted the tobacco juice cup in Dennis's hand, but it might have been placed there post mortem. This cup and the doorhandles would have been the first things that I would have checked for latent fingermarks. The temperature of the bodies might have established a window for the TOD.
EDT
The other thing that bothered me as I reviewed this case was the brazen violation of Brandon's sixth amendment right to counsel. The Appeals Court brushed off what seemed to me must have been a regular practice of reading the transcripts of calls between Brandon and his legal team.
