PA PA - Holly Branagan, 17, Bethlehem, 28 March 1979

[morf13]

The friend Holly was talking to said she had to go at 4:30 someone was at the door, Holly would call her back. Yet Holly called her father @ 4:45 to make sure he was in NJ. So it makes me think the person that did this had Holly call to make sure he was not coming home. The killer was with Holly when she called her father. The killer not only knew Holly, they knew the father and that he traveled.

Could have been that someone was poing as a delivery man,or something,or someone asking for directions with a map in his hand.She didnt feel threatened,and opened the door. Maybe she opened the door talked to the person,and they left and came back again AFTER she talked to her dad?

 

[morf13]

So when she told her girlfriend at 4:30PM that "someone was at the door" and she would call her back I often wondered, why not just say who it was.....she had plans to go out with friend on the phone at 6. Friend actually drove to house to pick her up at 6 and no answer. She left and went home. The clock was stopped at 5:20 the pendulum was on the floor. The TOD was set at around 5 PM. There are a few old articles that did contradict one another in the first few days but the later ones seem to have the time down pretty well.

A couple things here. First,if she spoke to her dad at 4:45,and the friend came at 6,there is a 1 hour and 15 minute window for the murder. The murder was estimated to be around 5pm. Its a tight time frame.

One other thing STARKRIAL, you said the clock was stopped at 5:20,and the pendulum was on the floor. Did this detail about the clock happen in a struggle,or was the pendulum purposely removed?

 

[Fukiyama]

A couple things here. First,if she spoke to her dad at 4:45,and the friend came at 6,there is a 1 hour and 15 minute window for the murder. The murder was estimated to be around 5pm. Its a tight time frame.

I agree, tight, but not too tight. The friend got no answer. I assume that means the friend knocked on the door and got no response, looked in a side window, shrugged and took off. The killer may still have been inside, out of sight.

 

[starkrial]

The information we have is from the various articles I have collected over the years. The time line was compiled from the articles as best we can tell. Also, Jim has read the crime report.

At 4:40PM - Holly was making plans to go for pizza at 6 with one of her friends.
4:45Pm - we are told Holly called her Dad's office, spoke to a secretary and asked if her Dad left for AC business trip.
5:00 PM - The friend that Holly told she would call back tries to call Holly and it rings through. No answer
5:20 Clock stopped, pendulum on the floor. Some sign of a struggle is seen but not from "room to room"
6:00 PM - Holly's friend drives to the Branagan home, which sits up high and is a unique sturcture in that the front door is flanked by long narrow windows, but when you walk in it is the first floor with garage and utility to the left and right. The main house is up on the second story. The kitchen is in the back. There is decking on the front and back but if you walked around the back and up on the deck, that would have been the only place to peek in. She rings doorbell and gets no answer. She leaves.
7:00 AM Another GF goes to house to pick Holly up for school and rings the bell, again, no answer. The dog comes to the door but her friend goes on to school.

Wednesday night Holly's brother made some attempts to call Holly to tell her his plan to sleep over at friends to work on car. Friends family was also home. He got busy signals that night. Sounds like the killer went into Holly's bedroom and took phone off hook. In the morning Sean got a bust signal and became concerned. His friend and he went to the house and found Holly.

I hope this makes sense. I know this story so well, that sometimes I leave things out that I take for granted. It's nice that people care about all these victims. I am hoping that in the next few months we are hearing some good news regarding Holly's case. I also hope their is justice for many others going through this pain. The families, friends and loved ones.

 

[starkrial]

There is some talk of a bathroom light being the only light on when police arrived. That and the phone was off the hook in Holly's bedroom. It is very possible that someone was still inside when the friend rang the bell. They cleaned off the knife handle and partial blade, the rest of the blade was broken off in Holly's back. The rage is just unbelievable. I am making a speculation here, but the killer may have had the mindset to clean up a bit. Still, there is evidence being re-dealt with and "new" information. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[Balthazar]

Starkrial,
Just trying to understand the story: It sounds to me like Holly and her killer were hanging out in her bedroom then went down to the kitchen where the "attack" happened or fight broke out and then the killer returned to Holly's bathroom to clean up?

The alternative would be that they went to the kitchen, got into the fight and the killer went to Holly's room and bathroom. In either scenario, the following is implied about the attacker, which is that they were:

1. Familiar and comfortable in Holly's bedroom/bathroom and kitchen - like they had been there and stayed there before.
2. Knew their way around the house - which according to what you have told us was one of those unusual late 60's early 70's floorplans.
3. The dog knew them and was OK with them being in the house.

To me this sounds like teen schizzle - one teen furious with the other one. The other possibility would be a workman who was familiar with the interior of the house - maybe someone who helped while Holly's mom was dying of cancer such as a hospice worker or related to that type of person and had visited the house while Holly's mom was dying or a housekeeper or other such person who was familiar with the interior of the house. Whoever it was they had to know whose bedroom was whose.

What were Holly's family's house rules? Was she allowed to have boys in her room or not?

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

Morganelli said the possibility of new information and promising clues perked his interest in the case, leading him to convene a meeting April 21 where he hopes to review the case file with Bethlehem detectives Mark DiLuzio and Thomas Galloway.
"I believe it is a solvable case," Morganelli said Monday.
He added that the meeting could spark his office to empanel a grand jury -- a grand jury was mustered in 1999 to investigate the Branagan case and other unsolved homicides.



the above was from April 09
What became of the meeting........did they decide to go to the GJ after this meeting? Or did the new evidence turn out to be not so positive after all?



...........................And i have always found it interesting, that someone having a phone call conversation with someone, whom is just moments away from being murdered, ends the conversation, due to the knock, ringing of the door bell, and moments later murdered. especially in this fashion, what are the statistics on that i wonder?


Was there phone records available at the time, in 79 to see whom called the house that afternoon.......after 3pm, but more precisely, was it determined through phone records how long the victim had been chatting with her friend, before the ringing of the door bell which ending the conversation...........


while on the phone, she heard the bell, told her friend ill call you back later, someone is at the door.......she hangs up, and goes and answers the door, and within a few minutes, calls the father, to see about his trip, after wards and not long after, she is fighting for her life!


It does not seem to me, she was planning on going for pizza around 6 pm that night, especially not knowing what her father was going to do about a trip he had planned........
the killer im assuming was inside and with her, when she made the father call?
and after that call was verified she was attacked and killed .?


for some reason, i thought she was upstairs, chatting on the phone with a friend, heard the ringing of the bell, hung up the phone, or did she really hang it up, or leave it laying off the hook to return to in a moment?.........she went downstairs opened the door, and let them in, told them come on up i am on the phone, and went back up and was murdered........?


Starkrial........can you clear any of this up for me?...........thank you.
I will add, that I would be totally surprised, if in the end we discover there was only one involved in this child's horrible physical death...........There was more to it, then what they have released, someone is talking, or sending good tips, perhaps one of the kids from back then, whom would be in there 40s now, and are coming forward with additional information, but mostly hearsay and nothing physical.

Its the phone call to the father, that gets me, as if the killer wanted to be sure dad was not coming home, so he/she.they could kill his daughter?

ADD ON .........do you have any visual aids from the crime scene we can look at?.........and this is just for my own curiosity, but can you tell me if there was water in the bathtub?..........thank you again for helping.

ALL MOO, NOTHING FACTUAL OR FOR CERTAIN, ALL ASSUMPTIONS AND SPECULATIONS ON MY PART

 

[starkrial]

I am getting information slowly from friends of Holly's. I think you are right on the money with the 'knowing their way around the house', the dog was fine with them being there, the friend that reportedly called at 5PM got no answer but the killer made sure the phone was off the hook. The perp did not take a weapon so that reinforces that it 'spun' out of control and quickly. If the killer was there at 4:40 as reported and Holly called the Dad's secretary at 4:45 then the phone had to have a dial tone at 4:45 to call out. Then supposedly at 5 it is on the hook then it's off the hook and on her bed in the morning.
One woman who emails me even theorized that the perp, if female, may have changed before leaving the house. It would have had to be a quick attack, the clock gets bumped in the ruckus and they are out of there by 6? I don't know....the brother could have popped home at any minute on an ordinary night. He was working on their car. He tried to call it was busy. Teen aged girl, home yakking on phone all evening, back in '79, not unusual. Personally, I believe that this was a female who was very close to Holly and 'something' went terribly wrong. A stranger would not know these personal details....but the call to the dad. a puzzle. And I very much believe (only my speculating of course) that this killer had help covering their *advertiser censored*. They did not walk or drive away from Holly's house without eventually going home or someplace with people. They may have been acting very strange. The next day when the word was spreading about the murder, they could have hidden their "nervousness" in the guise of shock.

That is why I try to keep Holly's story visible. Since January we have generated many views over the net and quite a few people have contacted either myself, or LE to communicate something they may have seen or known that was going on. The LE here have there hands full, that's for sure.

 

[starkrial]

They created a cold case unit which started in on Holly's case on June 29th.
There was kind of a media blitz surrounding that lasting for a few weeks. Things have settled down. I took to mean that combined with the constant nagging by Jim Friedman and myself from months ago to local LE and a possible "big" tip that may have come in they are well on the way to solving this case.

Let;s see if I can answer anything. All we have is what has been shared over the years and Jim's delving into the report.

The father was already on his business trip. That call always bugged me as well. But she never did anything but call a secretary and "supposedly" ask "did my dad leave yet"? If she did speak to someone she was told yes, he left. Maybe Holly was still alone at this point. Are these phone records available. I think I was told yes they are. There would be many phone calls to verify. Why didn't they do verification of phone calls back then. Perhaps they did. We don't know all the details.

Again, the setting here is a beautiful, quiet neighborhood with a lovely young teen brutally murdered, stabbed to death, as one officer said "killed five times". Not in the night but before dusk on a Wednesday afternoon. These were small town guys with something they were not accustomed to. They worked for days in the house. There were not the stringent protocols as today. They worked this case from their hearts as well as their minds. To the best of their ability, I do not doubt that. You can still speak to retired detectives, secretaries from the police office, everyone remembers Holly's case. It has haunted many of us for 30 years. I still have occasion to drive by both the house and more often where her brother Sean's accident occurred. It is impossible not to think about this crime.

As for the phone, drove me nuts for years...was it on the hook or off. Finally got someone to tell me. It was off the hook at 10:45AM when the police began searching the house. The 5PM phone caller says it was definitely on the hook at 5PM.

If Holly was in her bedroom and the friend on the other line heard both the door bell ring and voices then Holly's room could not have been too far from the front door. She would have put the phone down on the bed, walked down the steps to the front door (you can see in the video) then she picked up the first extension phone she passed and told the friend "someone is her, i'll call you back". So now you have the extension phone hung up but the bedroom phone still off the hook. Am I making any sense?

Then something changes here. Holly and her "visitor" go back into the bedroom for Holly to call her Dad's office...Or has visitor left and Holly is now alone????? Returning to her bedroom to make a quick call to Dad's office and put the phone back on the hook. That's where the mystery lies because she was apparently in a struggle at 5:20 and then she lay dying. The TOD by M.E. was something like 5:30 PM...I have to check.

Did I help? I hope. Check out Jim's video.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

They created a cold case unit which started in on Holly's case on June 29th.
There was kind of a media blitz surrounding that lasting for a few weeks. Things have settled down. I took to mean that combined with the constant nagging by Jim Friedman and myself from months ago to local LE and a possible "big" tip that may have come in they are well on the way to solving this case.

Let;s see if I can answer anything. All we have is what has been shared over the years and Jim's delving into the report.

The father was already on his business trip. That call always bugged me as well. But she never did anything but call a secretary and "supposedly" ask "did my dad leave yet"? If she did speak to someone she was told yes, he left. Maybe Holly was still alone at this point. Are these phone records available. I think I was told yes they are. There would be many phone calls to verify. Why didn't they do verification of phone calls back then. Perhaps they did. We don't know all the details.

Again, the setting here is a beautiful, quiet neighborhood with a lovely young teen brutally murdered, stabbed to death, as one officer said "killed five times". Not in the night but before dusk on a Wednesday afternoon. These were small town guys with something they were not accustomed to. They worked for days in the house. There were not the stringent protocols as today. They worked this case from their hearts as well as their minds. To the best of their ability, I do not doubt that. You can still speak to retired detectives, secretaries from the police office, everyone remembers Holly's case. It has haunted many of us for 30 years. I still have occasion to drive by both the house and more often where her brother Sean's accident occurred. It is impossible not to think about this crime.

As for the phone, drove me nuts for years...was it on the hook or off. Finally got someone to tell me. It was off the hook at 10:45AM when the police began searching the house. The 5PM phone caller says it was definitely on the hook at 5PM.

If Holly was in her bedroom and the friend on the other line heard both the door bell ring and voices then Holly's room could not have been too far from the front door. She would have put the phone down on the bed, walked down the steps to the front door (you can see in the video) then she picked up the first extension phone she passed and told the friend "someone is her, i'll call you back". So now you have the extension phone hung up but the bedroom phone still off the hook. Am I making any sense?

Then something changes here. Holly and her "visitor" go back into the bedroom for Holly to call her Dad's office...Or has visitor left and Holly is now alone????? Returning to her bedroom to make a quick call to Dad's office and put the phone back on the hook. That's where the mystery lies because she was apparently in a struggle at 5:20 and then she lay dying. The TOD by M.E. was something like 5:30 PM...I have to check.

Did I help? I hope. Check out Jim's video.

YES you are making sense.....and that video, would that be the youtube video......visiual aids of the crime scene are always helpful in determining things..........im going to search some sites on the web, i want to see where the blood was, if there was a trail of it, or just in one particular area.........ill be back.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

is this the house?http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&c...405,-75.367437&spn=0.001048,0.002819&t=h&z=19

I am having a problem, finding any photos of the crime scene during the investigation.........


quote/......But she never did anything but call a secretary and "supposedly" ask "did my dad leave yet"? If she did speak to someone she was told yes, he left. Maybe Holly was still alone at this point. Are these phone records available. I think I was told yes they are. There would be many phone calls to verify. Why didn't they do verification of phone calls back then. Perhaps they did. We don't know all the details....end of quote

yes, i understand, LE will ask for tips information, but hardly ever in my experience respond to an email with any answers, even a simple yes or no.
so we rely on persons such as yourself, to help us visual things, and try and help create pieces of missing puzzles...i would be interested in only the calls on that day, from 3 to 6pm to verify calls were made and or placed and to whom around that time...............interesting i read, the repairman was there that day, fixing the lines, and was cleared, which was good......and the serial killer?, i think not, just to way out for him, he may have been a stalker, but that area, that time, no...

this link...http://www.mindspring.com/~toxiccow/14_0009.html
was any useful information gain from it, as far as you know?

quote...If Holly was in her bedroom and the friend on the other line heard both the door bell ring and voices then Holly's room could not have been too far from the front door. She would have put the phone down on the bed, walked down the steps to the front door (you can see in the video) then she picked up the first extension phone she passed and told the friend "someone is her, i'll call you back". So now you have the extension phone hung up but the bedroom phone still off the hook. Am I making any sense? ...end of quote

makes sense, perfect sense, and if that is what occurred, if that friend would have stayed on the line, she could have heard things during the attack, for with the other phone still off the hook upstairs, and not being placed back on the base, the line should have remained opened......that is why i wondered about the phone records, to see if an open line was being recorded during the attack, hanging up the phone downstairs would not have ended the connection, the phone upstairs would had to be put back on base also, to end the connection.......i hope i make sense with that to you.
add on...if she put the phone down, went downstairs to answer the door, and it was a stranger, i don't believe the stranger would have allowed her to pick up the extension phone?, would have seen if she was calling for help, if she felt threaten, with a friend on hold, she could have screamed aloud or into the extension phone to alert her friend waiting on line upstairs, in the bedroom...............if it was someone she knew, perhaps someone that the friend on the other phone knew also, the conversation may had went like this.......i got to go* Karl/*Mary here, ill call you later?? *not real names.

quote...
Then something changes here. Holly and her "visitor" go back into the bedroom for Holly to call her Dad's office...Or has visitor left and Holly is now alone????? Returning to her bedroom to make a quick call to Dad's office and put the phone back on the hook. That's where the mystery lies because she was apparently in a struggle at 5:20 and then she lay dying. The TOD by M.E. was something like 5:30 PM...I have to check...end of quote.

without the phone records to get an accurate time, and to be sure they occurred, and without inside photos to see the layout of the house that day.......its hard to say for sure or even speculate....You mentioned, the phone upstairs was found off the hook.......she could not have called her father, downstairs until after placing that phone back on the base, the one that was found upstairs off the hook, to get a dial tone to call out.......she mayhad been on the phone upstairs, heard the bell, laid the phone down, whent downstairs and answered the door, told her friend on the extension phone downstairs, i will call you back later, so and so is here..yes, i think the person at the door, was known to both the victum and the person waiting on the phone upstairs......for a stranger i dont think, would allow her to pick up the downstairs phone, would seem like a call for help........but i do sense she would have said to the caller waiting, that so and so is here, ill call you back later......she never made it to bedroom again, where the phone was found off the hook, without the records to prove it, i dont think she called her father either,......WE NEED THOSE PHONE RECORDS VERIFIED


To save myself some time in searching, you know the layout of the home..........the kitchen, upstairs or downstairs/the bedroom with the phone off the hook, would that be up the stairs and to the right........the video is good, but does-not show much but the stairs, which was good to see........it would be a tremendous help, if there were photos available for viewing to seen inside the house, and where everything is, was after the crime was committed...........
that's all for now...........thanks for being here.

 

[Balthazar]

When Candace Montgomey killed Betty Gore, she used Betty's axe. Then she took a shower and left. About an hour later, she had dinner with her family and then went to see Star Wars with them at the movie theater. She acted completely normal and no one suspected a thing. She claimed that she had a break with reality and that the killing was self-defense and she was in shock after it happened - which is why the jury declared her not guilty.

I almost wonder if the "friend" who claimed to be on the phone with Holly may have actually been the killer and this supposed phone call was her way of establishing an alibi and inserting herself into the case enough to know what was going on. I was wondering if the call Holly made to her dad was to ask if she could spend the night at the "friend's" house - and then she didn't reach her dad and told the "friend" no and the "friend" chose to kill her at that point. Maybe the "friend" had planned to kill her later, but without that opportunity, chose to do it immediately. I would really like to know if phone records were checked to make sure the "friend" really was on the phone with Holly and her claim was not an alibi. I'm not certain that police would have checked phone records or not back in the 1970's.

 

[cusesleuth]

Were the attendance records of the school ever checked to see who was absent the day after the murder? And I wonder if anyone saw the school nurse or a private doctor for wounds on their hands?

 

[JulieR]

The killer would have been covered in blood, I wonder if there was a blood trail? Did he/she leave out the front or back? Was the door left unlocked when he/she left. The dog would have tracked blood everywhere, whoever came in that door would have seen blood long before finding Holly. The girlfriend that was to pick Holly up at 6 never even tried to open the door and yell in for Holly> I find that strange since she would known Holly's dad was out of town alot.

 

[starkrial]

The police have spoken to Jim and myself over the months prior to the Cold case Unit being opened. They were gathering information but they never revealed anything that would tip off a potential POI.

As for the mindspring post, that is pretty old. When first brought to detectives’ attention, they visited the guy. He is a self-proclaimed blogger and much of what he said was BS. That’s what I was told. I can tell you that he is fanaticizing when he says “only rich kids went to Freedom HS and the poor went to Liberty HS”. That was enough for me to know the rest was no doubt BS as well.

No that isn’t the house. If you would like, you can email me privately. There are certain things I won’t post because of Mr. Branagan. I don’t want to cross the line of his privacy. You understand I hope.

The house is big and unusual. It sits high off the ground, as the bottom floor is not the living space. It’s all wood and glass and beams. Very modern at the time it was built. The decks around the front are enclosed and high enough that a person could not see into the house if they were on foot in the front yard. They could go around back and up the steps to the back of the house. The kitchen sliding glass doors. But I don’t think they had to. Holly let the person in. It’s pretty obvious. No break-in, no robbery, etc.

The phone thing is the case breaker I am sure. (Speculation of course as I was not there but think about it).
You are so right. Even though things were changing, you had to hang up “all” of your phones to let the person calling in have their line free. I can remember my Mom doing that not all that long ago. I could hear her yakking away and I would be screaming for her to hang the darn phone up correctly. Back in 1979, definitely the friend’s phone was still engaged, even if she hung up at her end. If anyone picked up the phone at the callers’ end it would be connected UNTIL Holly hung it up in the bedroom.

Getting the phone records made public while they are currently deep into this investigation is highly unlikely. The detective they hired for the CCU is a retired State Police Homicide detective with a really good record. My very close neighbor mentored under him and has told me he is very thorough. Also I have a friend recently retired from his gig as city detective (next town over) and he has dealt with Det. Egan as well. So let’s hope the phone calls are an issue. I heard that it was addressed in a meeting with the DA.

It sure could shed some light. I also know that crime photos are being re-evaluated but we won’t be seeing them anytime soon. It’s’ all very hush hush, I am frustrated after 30 years. I am trying to learn patience.

For Princess Rose, Wow, she took a shower and went to the movies? Is this an old case like Holly’s? They would not yet have been checking drains for blood, I don’t think. But I could be wrong. How did they catch her?

The phone thing has been bugging me for 30 years. Even when the case was fresh, but only the cops could do anything about it. This is what I think they are saying in all of the articles, that “some” of the friends seemed to not be forthcoming with what they knew. The police “got the feeling” some people were holding back information. Some parents got lawyers, refused to let their kids speak to police, in a small town where many people knew each other. Very small town ideology.
I have been asking about the phone calls since January, they are very reluctant to answer directly so I take that to be a positive thing.

The attendance records had to be reviewed for absences. But since the killer could have just acted like everything was normal, they would be able to react soon when the word of the murder came out later that afternoon/early evening. His or her shock could show along with everyone else’s.

I have assumed the killer had to be a mess as well. The only thing I know is that the crime scene was “horrific” according to those who have viewed the photos. As for the dog tracking all over the house. Maybe Clancy stayed by her side while she bled to death. In the morning the friend who went to pick her up but left, said Clancy came to the door and pawed the window. It was daylight now. Blood would have been visible IF the friend peeked in and IF the dog tracked all through it. Her friend said she went up and rang the bell, the dog came to the door, and then she left. A different friend then the one from the night before.

It’s all so strange. The girlfriend of the night before, she doesn’t even mention the dog in any article. So what? The dog didn’t come when she rang the bell at 6PM?

It’s a bizarre story all the way around. So senseless. I just hope Mr. Branagan gets what he wants. He wants to know WHY? So sad.

Thank you all for caring. Talk to you later.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

thanks for responding back...
so the kitchen is upstairs.
which tells me she went down answered the door, and when her and the killer got back upstairs she was attacked and killed.
the main part of the phone line i wanted to know, is if she died say at 530pm, was there still a connection from the caller say until 529 531 etc.
which would tell me the caller was still on the line and listening to the girl being murdered in her kitchen.
i have my reasons why she was killed, but as you said for the mans privacy i wont post.
but this was no stranger killing, no serial killing etc........
this was a group of individuals, a small group, teenagers that decided they wanted to kill this person.
I comment the police for saying in April, about NEW and exciting evidence that came about, but i think that was just an attempt to get someone to dash themselves down to police headquarters and get a plea deal for talking first, its the first one talks get the better deal thing.
If they really want to stir the pot, have them again, to ask for volunteers, to come down for a polygraph test, and lets see how many show up after all this years.......assuming, there are some whom have never taken one?or perhaps they did?

In closing, if you or LE ever want some ideas, on any roadblocks they come to in this investigation, to help fill in the pieces of the puzzle, let us know exactly what that roadblock is in the investigation, maybe someone here could help create a new path, or road around this roadblock and get that piece of puzzle your missing.
take care and i wish you well in solving.

I still would love to set down and go through all the evidence in the case, that would really be a tremendous help in solving........but as you said, that's not going to happen..

afterthought...was they able to determine any footprints in the blood, did they get any footprints, photos of the bottom of shoes in the blood, and was there only one set or two perhaps.
​

 

[Balthazar]

Starkrial,
Here's the Candace Montgomery story:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/betty_gore/1_index.html
To make a long story short, she left a thumbprint at the crimescene - you have to read the story to believe what all happened - it was very bizarre.

Another thought on Holly's case - were they in the kitchen to feed the dog? Otherwise - she was going to go out for pizza, so why be in the kitchen only an hour beforehand?

 

[Fukiyama]

Another thought on Holly's case - were they in the kitchen to feed the dog? Otherwise - she was going to go out for pizza, so why be in the kitchen only an hour beforehand?

I wouldn't think it odd at all to be in the kitchen. A lot of families live their lives out of the kitchen as the main room of the house. Dumping junk on the kitchen table after school or work, the mail. If you don't subscribe to that at all, maybe she was just getting a glass of water?

 

[starkrial]

From all accounts I have read the knife was in the kitchen so either Holly went for it or more likely the killer. It may have been in one of those wooden holders and was readily available on the counter OR the killer knew the house well enough to know the drawers.

 

[JulieR]

Or like the case of Lindy's murder, we learned much later there was two knifes. The killer could have had a knife also, but seen a much bigger better one at the house. This person came to kill her, it would not surprise me that he/she brought their own weapon. Do you really think the fire Holly's brother Sean's was in was an accident? Do you have any information on that, I wonder if he wasn't getting close to finding out who did this, rumors going around. I know the police were looking at him, but I just have a hard time believing that fire was an accident. Seems like someone wanted them both gone.
Another thing the stands out to me is the defensive wounds only two small ones on her hands? That screams more then one person to me. Could be one person brought a knife and one grab a knife from the kitchen.